Today is Martyr Day. Martyr Day commemorates the assassination of the former leader of the Northern Alliance, Ahmad Shah Massoud, by suicide bombers on September 9, 2001.
Martyr Day is an official holiday of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Like most holidays here, it doesn't happen according to a hard and fast rule, but is instead declared annually by the president.
It is declared each year on the day after the Friday closest to September 9th. Since Friday is the Sabbath in Muslim-dominated Afghanistan, this amounts to a long weekend.
This year, Martyr Day was celebrated by the forces opposed to the democratically elected government with a suicide bombing in Kabul. The bombing happened at one of the largest traffic circles in town, which by no coincidence happens to have a massive monument to Massoud in the center of it.
The victims were random pedestrians, including schoolchildren. Security forces, domestic or foreign, were not targeted in the attack.
Happy Martyr Day.