May 4, 2015

Suicide blast targets government officials in Kabul

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Tuesday 05 May 2015 - 01:38 Makkah mean time-16-7-1436

Kabul (IINA) - An explosion in Kabul has targeted a shuttle bus belonging to the Afghan attorney general's office, leaving at least one dead and wounding 13 others.
Monday's incident occurred in the capital's sixth police district as the vehicle was carrying attorney general's office employees, the interior ministry said. Zabiullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message to news organizations. The Afghan interior ministry "strongly condemned" the attack. "These attacks... demonstrate [an] extreme level of atrocity by terrorists against innocent and defenseless civilians," the ministry said in a statement. The explosion blew out the windows of houses and shops nearby, Ahmad Reshad, a government employee who was near the blast site, told AFP news agency.
The attack comes after a 20-member Afghan delegation on Sunday launched two-days of "open discussion" with Taliban representatives in Qatar - in their latest effort to end Afghanistan's long war. The attack was the first in Kabul since the armed group launched their annual warm-weather offensive on April 24. The Taliban is engaged in fierce fighting in northern Kunduz province, where thousands of government forces are struggling to fend off a major offensive that last week threatened the provincial capital. NATO's combat mission formally ended in December but a small follow-up foreign force has stayed on to train and support local security personnel.
The Taliban launched their spring offensive across Afghanistan late last month, stepping up attacks on government and foreign targets and inflicting a heavy toll on civilians and Afghan security forces. The number of civilians killed and wounded jumped 22 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). In the first three months of 2015, civilian casualties from ground fighting were up eight percent on the same period last year, a new UNAMA report said.
HA/IINA

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