Kabul Bomb Targets VP, Kills 10 Civilians
World
Asharq Alawsat
A bombing in the Afghan capital on Wednesday killed 10 people and wounded more than a dozen others in an attack that targeted the country´s first vice president, officials said. First Vice President Amrullah Saleh suffered minor burns in the attack. The Interior Ministry says the bomb went off as Saleh´s convoy was passing through a section of Kabul with shops that sell gas cylinders. The blast ignited a fire that set ablaze a number of shops. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing and the Taliban quickly denied they were behind the attack. According to spokesman Razwan Murad, the bombing targeted Saleh's convoy as it passed through Kabul on Wednesday morning. Saleh, who is also Afghanistan's former intelligence chief, said in his first television appearance immediately after the attack that he was fine and had suffered only slight burns. He appeared in the TV footage with bandages on one hand. "Me and my younger son who was also with me are fine," Saleh said in the footage. "I have slight burns on my face and hand from the wave of the blast. I don´t have exact details right now, but I apologize to those who suffered casualties and those who lost their property in the attack." His spokesman, Murad, called the attack a "vicious terrorist attempt". The roads in the vicinity of the bombing were closed off. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed was quick to deny the insurgents were involved in any way, saying that "today´s explosion in Kabul has nothing to do with the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Emirate," as the Taliban call themselves. Both the insurgents and the ISIS group are active in Kabul where tensions are also high ahead of the expected start of negotiations between an official Afghan delegation and the Taliban. Washington has been ramping up pressure on both sides to get the talks underway. America's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is in Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office, trying to get the negotiations started. The negotiations, known as intra-Afghan talks, were envisaged as part of a peace deal the US signed with the Taliban in Qatar in February to end America's longest war. At the time, the talks were cast as Afghanistan's best chance at peace after decades of conflict. Kabul's peace negotiation team is waiting in the Afghan capital to travel to the Qatari capital of Doha for the talks but delays have been relentless. In recent days, Washington, officials in Kabul and the Taliban have all indicated that they could get underway imminently. The US-Taliban deal allows for the exit of American soldiers from Afghanistan. However, US troop pullout, which has already begun, does not hinge on the success of intra-Afghan talks but rather on commitments from the Taliban to fight against other militant groups - such as ISIS- and to prevent Afghanistan from being a staging arena for attacks against the US and its allies.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2497336/kabul-bomb-targets-vp-kills-10-civilians
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