Officials said on Sunday that at least 100 tankers were destroyed in a fire that raged in Afghanistan on Saturday at one of the most important border crossings with Iran, causing millions of dollars in losses.
“We learned that[au moins] Between 100 and 200 trucks were destroyed. “We need more time to determine the extent of the damage,” said Gilani Farhad, a spokesman for the Herat state governor, after visiting the site of the accident.
Currently, the fire is about to be extinguished, and the investigation is underway.
Environ 20 blessés ont été emmenés à l’hôpital à la suite de l’incendie, lequel a commencé samedi en début d’après-midi au poste frontière d’Islam Qala, a ajouté M. Farhad, un chiffre confirmé par des responsables de the health.
Yunus Qazizadeh, head of the Herat Chamber of Commerce, said that while firefighters were trying to extinguish the fire, thieves entered the scene and stole imported and exported goods at the border.
“The disaster is much bigger than we thought,” he said.
“Unfortunately, shameless thieves looted a lot of property,” Zadeh said.
Saturday estimated “millions of dollars in losses.”
An AFP photographer who visited the scene of the accident on Sunday described flames and smoke still floating over the charred carcasses.
Security forces opened fire on a car on Sunday, killing a man after the driver failed to stop at a checkpoint set up to protect the customs office from thieves.
Hundreds of people, claiming to be truck owners, gathered around the police cordon, hoping to approach the site of the fire.
According to the Finance Ministry, the fire broke out in a truck, according to pre-war reports.
The accident resulted in “heavy financial losses”, as we lost fuel, tankers and infrastructure for the customs office, expressing regret.
The ministry said a delegation had been sent from Kabul to investigate the incident.
A large part of Herat state was without electricity on Sunday due to damaged power lines.
A trip to Iran
Islam Qala is one of the most important border crossings in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has been granted an exemption from Washington allowing it to import Iranian gasoline and gas despite US sanctions.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that the border “was open to trucks, cars and people fleeing the fire to Iran.”
According to Afghan Vice President Amarullah Saleh, hundreds of trucks managed to enter Iran for protection.
Farhad said Afghan and Iranian firefighters were still on site to extinguish the recent small fires.
He said the Taliban, taking advantage of the situation, attacked a nearby security post during the fire on Saturday.
The latter regularly attacks tanker trucks that are suspected of supplying foreign forces in Afghanistan.
In 2014 the rebels claimed responsibility for an attack near Kabul that destroyed more than 200 tanks.
However, there is no indication that the group was responsible for the Sabbath fire.
However, security forces were deployed around the border post.
Despite the peace talks between the Taliban and Kabul that began in Doha in September, not a day passes in the country without an explosion, attacks on government forces, or an assassination.
These negotiations between the Afghan parties are on hold today.
Once US President Joe Biden took office, his administration ordered a review of the agreement signed with the Taliban in February 2020 in Doha, which provided for the complete withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan by 1.is being Could.
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