Kenyan woman Lilian Boit dies in Kabul base bomb
A Kenyan woman working for an American private military contractor was killed last Tuesday in the latest suicide bombing targeting a US military base in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Lilian Boit is a former Kenya Air Force officer, who was based at Moi Air Base Eastleigh before relocating to Afghanistan to work for DynCorp International as a security officer.
She died after a suicide bomber rode an explosives-filled motorcycle to a barrier she and her colleagues were manning and detonated the improvised explosive device.
Boit had just finished her shift and was walking back to the base when the suicide bomber, who had passed through three barriers manned by Afghan soldiers and reached the final foreign-manned barrier, detonated the explosive.
She is a niece to former Commissioner of Prisons Abraham Kamakil. Boit and four other foreign security advisors employed by Dyncorp International died in the attack at a key counter narcotics building outside Kabul airport.
Six other security guards were injured in the attack. The attack happened several days after security forces repulsed yet another attack by Taliban on Kabul airport.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihulllah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack. Kabul airport is a major operational base for Nato-led forces. It is a fortified base guarded by soldiers and police, surrounded by guard towers and checkpoints.
It is reported that heavily armed Taliban fighters attacked the counter-narcotics building with grenades and automatic weapons before the bomber rode the motorcycle and detonated his explosives outside the main entrance close to a US military base.
“In this successful attack up to 15 invader soldiers were killed or wounded and many vehicles were damaged,” Mujahid was quoted saying. Two of Boit’s colleagues, who died in the attack, have been identified as Indians from Kerala state.
They are 52-year-old Ponnappan from Kaduthuruthy village and Raveendran, a resident of Kozhikode in the same state. Both had retired from the Indian Air Force and joined DynCorp International, which posted them to Afghanistan.
Boit’s family was informed about her death on Thursday night but her mother got the news on Friday afternoon. Arrangements are being made to transport her body back to Kenya after the Federal Bureau of Investigations complete their probe. The head of Dyncorp International in Afghanistan will accompany the body to Kenya.
Kenyan woman Lilian Boit dies in Kabul base bomb
