Suicide bombing leaves 12 dead
For second time in a week, Taliban meet opening of peace talks in Qatar with an attack in Afghanistan.
KABUL — For the second time in a week, Taliban insurgents on Sunday greeted the opening of new peace discussions in Qatar with a deadly suicide bombing at home, this time killing 12 people and wounding at least 179 in conflicted Ghazni province.
The defiant message from the attack on a national intelligence compound, which wounded scores of children at a nearby school, drew a sharp contrast with optimistic statements by U.S. officials and negotiators, who expressed hope this week that a peace agreement — or at least the outlines of one — could be reached by Sept. 1.
Just as a delegation of Afghan leaders were heading to an ice-breaking “peace summit” with Taliban officials, word came that the insurgents had claimed a rush-hour assault in Ghazni city, the provincial capital they besieged and shut down last August.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid quickly claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack and said “dozens” of intelligence employees had been killed. Intelligence officials said two of its employees were dead and 80 others wounded.
The bombing came one day after the top U.S. negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, told journalists that the new round of negotiations that began Thursday in Doha, where the Taliban’s political office is located, had been “the most productive” session since such talks began in September.
Some fear Sunday’s attack casts new doubts on the Taliban’s commitment to settling the 18-year conflict, and that hopes of reaching even a framework agreement by early September would be disappointed.
Sunday’s attack came as 50 Afghan leaders from across the country, as well as a few government officials acting in a “personal” capacity, prepared to spend two days talking informally with the Taliban and “getting to know each other,” as Khalilzad said Saturday, at a meeting sponsored by Germany.
The U.S.-Taliban talks have been put on hold for the next several days to allow those discussions to advance. U.S. and Afghan officials hope they will pave the way for formal talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
The insurgents have refused to recognize or meet with any Afghan officials, claiming they are U.S. puppets.
Sediq Siddiqi, a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, said Sunday that “it is beyond understanding that a group like the Taliban, while their leaders are sitting in Qatar talking about peace, commits this horrific and deplorable crime that took many innocent lives.”
Save the Children, an international charity active in Afghanistan, said many of the injured children were hospitalized with severe shrapnel injuries to the head and chest. The group said Sunday’s blast showed the “devastating consequences of using explosive weapons in populated areas,” and urged “all armed groups” to “stop killing and maiming innocent children.”
Ghazni province has been attacked multiple times by the Taliban in the past year, including the August assault that left scores dead and whole city blocks in ruins. The insurgents control several rural districts and have attacked others, causing thousands of residents to flee. Voting in parliamentary elections in October was canceled across the province.
In recent months, Afghan security forces have pushed back aggressively with airstrikes and ground attacks in the embattled province, taking back several key districts and vowing to restore order and peace.