Taliban kills at least 48 in bloody day ahead of Afghan polls

KABUL (AFP) — Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 48 people and wounded dozens more in two blasts Tuesday — one at a campaign rally for the president and the other in Kabul — with the insurgents warning of more violence ahead of elections.

The first attack saw a motorcyclist detonate a suicide bomb at a checkpoint leading to a rally where President Ashraf Ghani was addressing supporters in Parwan province, just north of the capital, killing 26 and wounding 42.

Just over an hour later, another blast also claimed by the Taliban rocked central Kabul near the U.S. embassy. Authorities initially did not give casualty figures, but later said 22 people had been killed and a further 38 wounded.

The explosions came after U.S. President Donald Trump, objecting to a previous deadly Taliban blast, abruptly ended talks with the Islamist extremists earlier this month over a deal that would have allowed the U.S. to begin withdrawing troops from its longest war.

In a statement sent to media claiming responsibility for both of Tuesday’s blasts, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the attack near Ghani’s rally was deliberately aimed at disrupting the Sept. 28 ballot.

“We already warned people not to attend election rallies. If they suffer any losses that is their own responsibility,” the statement said.

At the scene near Ghani’s rally, roughly an hour’s drive north of Kabul, the remains of a burnt motorcycle, with a body on top, were covered by a blanket, next to a badly damaged police car.

Women and children were among the casualties, Parwan hospital director Abdul Qasim Sangin told AFP.

The president was unhurt. He later condemned the attack, saying the incident proved the Taliban had no real interest in reconciliation.

“As the Taliban continue their crimes, they once again prove that they are not interested in peace and stability in Afghanistan,” Ghani said in a statement.

Sixty kilometers (40 miles) away in Kabul, a shopkeeper, Rahimullah, said he had been sitting inside his shop when the second blast came.

“The wave broke all the windows,” he told AFP.

“I rushed outside and saw several bodies just across the street. This is the second time in less than a month that a blast has broken our windows. I just fixed them a week ago.”

AP-Yonhap An Afghan policeman inspects the site of a suicide attack in Parwan province of Afghanistan, Tuesday. Separate attacks by suicide bombers — one that targeted President Ashraf Ghani’s election rally in Parwan and a second that ripped through the center of the Afghan capital — killed at least 48 people and wounded scores more in the deadliest single day since a peace agreement with Taliban insurgents was declared dead.