Separate Taliban attacks by suicide bombers kill 48

KABUL — Separate attacks by suicide bombers — one targeting President Ashraf Ghani’s election rally and a second that ripped through the center of the Afghan capital — killed at least 48 people and wounded scores more Tuesday in the deadliest single day since a peace agreement with Taliban insurgents was declared dead.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for both blasts, saying an explosivesladen motorcycle targeted Ghani’s election rally being held on the outskirts of Charakar in northern Parwan province. Ghani was present but unhurt, his campaign chief said. In that explosion, 26 people were killed, according to Nasrat Rahimi, spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Four among the dead were Afghan military personnel, he said. Another 42 people were wounded, many of them women and children.

In the second bombing, just hours later in the heart of Kabul not far from the U.S. Embassy, the Taliban said they were targeting an Afghan army base. They killed 22 people, government officials said. Scores more were wounded.

The violence comes as Afghanistan faces presidential elections on Sept. 28 — a vote the Taliban vehemently oppose. The insurgent group has warned Afghans not to vote in the election and said their fighters would target election campaigns as well as polling stations.

The bomber who attacked Ghani’s rally detonated his explosives at the entrance to the rally, according to Hamed Aziz, a spokesman for Ghani’s campaign office. But Aziz said the explosion occurred some distance from where Ghani was addressing a crowd of about 2,200.

Campaigning for the Afghan elections resumed last week after President Trump declared that the U.S.Taliban talks, which have been going on for months in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, are over.

Most presidential candidates had suspended their campaigns while negotiations were taking place and as the U.S. peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, said a deal was all but signed.

Trump’s tweets at the beginning of September declaring the deal and the talks were “dead” launched the warbattered nation on an election campaign.