The Taliban carried
out a devastating suicide car bombing in central Afghanistan Sunday that killed
12 people and wounded over 150 others, said Afghan officials. The attack came
as an all-Afghan peace conference, which includes the Taliban, was underway
Sunday in Doha in an effort to end the country’s relentless wars.
A provincial council
member, Hasan Raza Yousafi, said the car bomb exploded nearby an intelligence
department compound in Ghazni, the capital of the province of the same name.
The dead included eight security personnel, he said. Many of the wounded were
students of a nearby high school said the provincial health department chief,
Zahir Shah Nekmal. He said most of the injured suffered cuts and abrasions from
broken glass.
Taliban spokesman
Zabihullah Mujahed claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, saying the
target was the intelligence service’s compound in Ghazni. He said the bombing
killed tens of intelligence employees. The Taliban often exaggerate such
claims. Meanwhile, US Peace Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad hailed the intra-Afghan
talks underway in Doha as a good first step toward substantive negotiations
between Afghans on a framework for the country’s future. He said Washington’s
“aspiration” is to have that framework in place by Sept. 1 and ahead of the
Afghan presidential election.
Khalilzad, who has
been holding direct talks with the Taliban for the past six days also in Doha,
told a press briefing on Saturday that included The Associated Press that the
discussions were the most productive ever. He will resume talks with the Taliban
on Tuesday, he said. Talks have covered a timeframe for the withdrawal of US
and NATO troops from Afghanistan, verifiable anti-terror guarantees from the
Taliban, intra-Afghan negotiations and an eventual cease-fire.
Meanwhile in western
Ghor province, a roadside mine killed seven children Saturday. The youngest was
just 5 years old. Abdul Hai Khateby, a spokesman for the provincial governor,
said the Taliban planted the mine apparently to thwart a planned Afghan
military offensive to retake nearby areas under the militants’ control. The
children were local shepherds who happened to be moving their herd along the
road when the mine exploded, he said.
Source: France.24 – 7 July
2019
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