In yet another barbaric act by Islamic terrorists, at least 95 people have been wounded after a car bomb exploded on Wednesday outside a police station in the Afghan capital Kabul. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the deadly terror attack.
Reportedly, the blast occurred in the west of the city in the morning rush hour, which sent a huge cloud of grey smoke billowing into the sky. The Taliban has claimed that a “recruitment centre” had been attacked by one of their suicide bombers.
“A large number of soldiers and police were killed or wounded,” the Taliban said in a statement.
The bomb exploded when a vehicle was stopped at a checkpoint outside the police station, said interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi. A health ministry spokesman said 95 wounded people had been taken to hospitals. Most of the injured were civilians, including women and children, he said.
The security forces had earlier conducted raids in several parts of Kabul overnight and destroyed a major militant hideout.
This attack by the Taliban comes at a time when the United States and Afghanistan are closer to achieve a historic pact to enable the US to withdraw their troops in exchange for a Taliban promise that they would not use the country as a base from which to plot terror attacks.
The violence has been surging across Afghanistan and in Kabul as the US and the Taliban negotiate a peace deal ahead of elections planned for September 28. Just few days back the Taliban had warned of terror strikes in Afghanistan after denouncing the upcoming elections.
They had urged people to stay way from rallies warning of attacks. President Ashraf Ghani is expected to win the elections and be reelected as Afghanistan’s president for a second term. The Taliban have called for boycott of the elections and have said the ‘fighters’ would do anything to block the vote.
