The embassy was warned of an imminent attack six days before it was hit by one of Kabul's most massive truck bombs, reports say. The intelligence alerts were reportedly highly specific about the nature of the attack.
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Germany's intelligence agencies knew the country's embassy in Kabul was about to be hit with a devastating truck bomb, the Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday.
Security agencies received warnings from multiple intelligence sources several months ahead of time, Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schäfer told German news agency DPA.
As a result the embassy evacuated its staff from parts of the building, which were later destroyed by the targeted strike in May, which also killed 150 people and injured 450 others.
Endless battle for power in Afghanistan
Seventeen years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the war-torn country remains in the grip of Islamist violence. A string of deadly attacks in the last year suggests militants are stronger than ever.
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Fragile security
Repeated attacks in Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019 have killed and wounded hundreds of innocent Afghans, and shown the world the fragile and worsening state of security in the conflict-stricken country. The incidents have plunged war-weary Afghan citizens into a state of despair and highlighted the limitations faced by the government in Kabul in ensuring public security.
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A long series of attacks
The violent incidents have made Afghanistan once again a staple of international headlines. Outfits like the Taliban and the "Islamic State" (IS) have claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Afghan government is under heavy pressure to restore security and take back territory controlled by a number of insurgent groups, including the Taliban and IS.
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Spring offensive
In 2018, the Taliban announced the start of their annual spring offensive, dismissing an offer of peace talks by President Ashraf Ghani. The militants, fighting to restore their version of strict Islamic law to Afghanistan, said their campaign was a response to a more aggressive US military strategy adopted in 2017, which aims to force the militants into peace talks.
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Trump's Afghanistan policy
US President Donald Trump unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan in 2017, vowing to deploy more troops to train and advise Afghan security forces. Trump also pledged to support Afghan troops in their war against the Taliban and maintain US presence in the country for as long as there was a need for it. In 2019, he reversed course and promised a troop pullout.
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Afghan peace process
Despite President Ghani's offer in February 2018 for peace talks "without preconditions," the Taliban had until 2019 shown no interest, dismissing the peace overtures as a "conspiracy."
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Pakistani support
Pakistan has been under pressure from Kabul and Washington to stop offering safe havens to militants blamed for attacks in Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad denies and insists that its influence over the insurgents has been exaggerated. Kabul and Islamabad regularly trade accusations of harboring the other country's militants and the harsh language has underscored the strains between them.
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Role of the warlords
Apart from the Taliban, Afghan warlords exercise massive influence in the country. Last year, Hizb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul after a 20-year exile to play an active role in Afghan politics. In September 2016, the Afghan government signed a deal with Hekmatyar in the hope that other warlords and militant groups would seek better ties with Kabul.
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An inefficient government
In the midst of an endless battle for power, President Ghani's approval ratings continue to plummet. Rampant corruption in the Afghan government and a long tug-of-war within the US-brokered national unity government has had a negative impact on the government's efforts to eradicate terrorism.
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The confirmation came after reports from public broadcaster RBB and respected news magazine Spiegel that found Germany intelligence had specific knowledge of an attack targeting the embassy using a tanker truck five months before it happened.
In the weeks and months following there were three other intelligence reports of the attack, according to the news outlets.
The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) reportedly warned the embassy six days before the attack that it was about to be struck with a bomb inside a tanker truck.
The driver had fake papers, but was stopped at the gate by an Afghan security guard, who phoned the embassy to see if the truck was expected, the outlets reported.
The driver then detonated the bomb, which according to RBB, was 10 times larger than previously reported. It said there were 10 tons (22,000 pounds) of explosives in the tanker.
At the time the German Embassy in Kabul praised the Afghan security forces for stopping the bomber's truck from entering the inner part of the diplomatic enclave.
Officials were quick to blame the Taliban, but both the Taliban and the Taliban-allied Haqqani network ruled out any involvement in a wave of Kabul bombings.
"We have already condemned the (attacks). The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) is not behind them," the group's deputy leader Sirajuddin Haqqani said in an audio message posted on the group's website on Sunday.
