Security force members stand guard at the blast site in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 27, 2018. Death toll from an explosive-laden ambulance detonated by a terrorist in Kabul on Saturday rose to 95, with 158 others wounded, according to a Public Health Ministry spokesman. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah)
BEIJING, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) and various countries have strongly condemned Saturday's terrorist attack in the Afghan capital of Kabul, which left at least 95 people dead and 163 others injured.
In a press statement released on Saturday, the UN Security Council said it condemned the attack "in the strongest terms," expressing deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the government of Afghanistan.
Terrorists blew up an ambulance laden with explosives in central Kabul in the deadliest attack for months. The attack, claimed by the Taliban, followed an assault by Taliban militants on a luxury hotel in Kabul a week ago that killed 22 people.
The blast occurred roughly at 12:50 p.m. local time (0820 GMT) in front of Jamhoriat Hospital, where several government offices are located.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah strongly condemned the deadly attack, the fifth major terror attack in the country in January.
The Security Council underlined the need to hold the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice, and urged all states to cooperate actively with the Afghan government as well as all other relevant authorities in this regard.
The council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and reaffirmed the need for all states to combat by all means threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.
Earlier Saturday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack in central Kabul, said his spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement, expressing solidarity with the government and people of Afghanistan.
"Indiscriminate attacks against civilians are grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and can never be justified. Those responsible for today's attack must be brought to justice," said the statement released in Addis Ababa, where the UN chief is attending an African Union summit.
U.S. President Donald Trump has also condemned the attack, saying that the United States is committed to a secure Afghanistan that is free from terrorists, said the White House in a statement released Saturday.
In the statement, Trump called on all the countries to take decisive action against the Taliban and the terrorist infrastructure that supports them.
The French people are trying to show their support by turning off lights on the Eiffel Tower, the country's iconic construction. The tower will have its lights turned off to show solidarity with the victims of the deadly attack, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said Saturday.
"Tonight, at midnight, Eiffel Tower will turn its lights off to pay tribute to the victims of the despicable attack that struck the heart of Kabul," Hidalgo wrote on Twitter.
"Paris city, the Parisians are alongside Afghan people who face again the terrorist barbarism," she added.
Pakistan and India have also strongly condemned the deadliest car bomb attack.
"The people and the government of Pakistan condemn the terrorist blast in Kabul and extend heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this reprehensible act," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Muhammad Faisal said Saturday.
"Terrorism is not the way forward," the spokesman wrote on his official Twitter account.
India has described the terrorist attack in Kabul as "barbaric and dastardly."
"There can be no justification for such reprehensible attacks. The perpetrators of these attacks and their supporters should be brought to justice," said a statement issued by India's external affairs ministry.
(Xinhua reporters Shang Xuqian, Farid Behbud, Liu Chen, Zhu Dongyang, Muhammad Tahir and Pankaj Yadav contributed to the story.)
