At least 14 dead, 145 hurt by Taliban bomb in Kabul
KABUL: Scores of people were wounded when a Taliban car bomb detonated in Kabul yesterday, sending a massive plume of smoke over the Afghan capital and shattering windows far from the blast site.
Violence is surging across Afghanistan and in Kabul as the United States and the Taliban negotiate a peace deal ahead of elections planned for Sept 28.
The car bomb exploded near the entrance of a police station in western Kabul around 9am local time, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.
Afghan authorities said at least 10 civilians and four police officers had been killed. Another 145 people, including 92 civilians, were wounded.
“I heard a big bang and all the windows of my shop broke with glass flying everywhere,” shopkeeper Ahmad Saleh said.
“My head is spinning and still I don’t know what has happened but the windows of about 20 shops around one kilometre from the blast site are broken.”
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to footage on social media and witnesses, small-arms fire could be heard following the blast.
A common insurgent tactic is to use a suicide bomber to hit a target and then follow up with gunmen storming the area.
More than 1,500 civilians were killed or wounded in the Afghan conflict in July alone, according to the United Nations, the worst single month since May 2017.
The Taliban warned Afghans on Tuesday to keep away from election rallies and ordered its fighters to “stand against” the September vote.
Previous elections have been rocked by frequent attacks by the Taliban and other insurgent groups trying to undermine Afghanistan’s fragile democracy.
Overnight, Afghan commandos stormed a safe house for Islamic State fighters near Kabul’s airport, officials said. Details of that operation were still emerging.
Separately, in Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan, authorities said they stopped an attack on a security forces convoy.
According to the Afghan army, three attackers were driving in an explosivespacked Humvee toward the convoy, but Afghan troops spotted them and destroyed the vehicle. Three attackers were killed, it added.