A series of blasts rocked Afghanistan’s capital Kabul Thursday morning, killing at least ten people and wounding scores of others.
A Ministry of Interior spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, said a suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted a mini bus carrying the staff of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum as they were on their way to work. A secondary explosion rocked the site of the first attack.
Secondary explosions are common in Kabul and have in the past killed first responders and journalists covering the attack.
A separate car bomb hit Jalalabad road in Kabul a few hours later. Local TV channels showed footage of relatives wailing outside local hospitals as they searched for their loved ones.
Meanwhile, another blast in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, killed nine members, six women and three children, from the same family, according to Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for Nangarhar governor’s office.
Gulzada Sangar, a spokesman for Nangarhar civilian hospital, said five other victims of the attack are in stable condition.
Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Jalalabad road, in which they claim they targeted “foreign invaders.”
“Martyrdom seeker [Muhammad Kabuli] using VBIED struck convoy of foreign invaders in Spechari area of #Kabul city 9am this morning resulting in 2 SUVs destroyed & 9 senior foreign officers killed,” a Tweet from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said.
However, in the same Tweet he distanced the Taliban from the other two blasts in the city.
Zalmay Khalilzad in Kabul
As the violence rages in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, the man appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump to find a way to extricate the United States from Afghanistan, is in Kabul, discussing “where we are on the #AfghanPeaceProcess,” according to his tweets. He met senior Afghan leadership Wednesday, including President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, and Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani.
On Tuesday, as he arrived in Kabul, the Afghan government issued a strong press release demanding a “clarification” for President Trump’s words that “Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth if he wanted to win the war but he did not want to “kill 10 million people.”
Both Khalilzad and Taliban’s political team based in Doha have been sending out positive indicators about their ongoing negotiations, now in its seventh round.
Remaining issues
Both sides acknowledge that they have made progress on two issues: announcement of a timeline of withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, and promises by the Taliban that Afghan soil will not be used for terrorism against any other country.
However, there seem to be differences on two more issues on the table: announcement of a comprehensive cease-fire and agreement by the Taliban to enter into direct negotiations with the Afghan government.
The United States has asked Pakistan to help use its influence with the Taliban to resolve these issues. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was on a three day trip to Washington and the White House this week, promised to help.
“Now, when I go back, after meeting President Trump, and I have also spoken to President Ghani, now I will meet the Taliban and tell them to talk to the Afghan government. I believe the election in Afghanistan should be inclusive and Taliban must be included,” Khan said during a public talk at the United States Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan, U.S. government funded research organization.