[caption id="attachment_259152" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Afghan security forces inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Ghazni province, central Afghanistan on Sunday.[/caption]
Kabul, July 7 (IANS/PTI): At least 12 people were killed and 179 others injured on Sunday in a suicide car bombing in Afghanistan’s Ghazni city. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The attack took place in the morning at around 8.30 a.m. near a local base of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Ghazni city,” Arif Noori, a spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province, told Efe news.
The victims comprised eight security personnel and four civilian, Noori said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.
“A key base of the National Directorate of Security in Ghazni city was targeted by a martyrdom-seeking attacker using a VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device).
“According to our initial information, the base was completely destroyed and tens of NDS forces and workers were killed and injured,” Mujahid added. The NDS said that the attack took place at a security check-post located at the first entrance of one of its facilities in Ghazni.
“Civilians living in nearby houses suffered the most,” the NDS said, adding that “the site of the attack has now been cordoned off by the security forces.”
This attack occurred on the same day that a round of intra-Afghan peace talks commenced in Qatar between the insurgents and a delegation including members of the Kabul government taking part in an unofficial and personal capacity.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack in a statement, labeling it a “crime against humanity” that proved them to be the enemy of the people.
“By conducting this terrorist attack, Taliban showed a paradox in what they are saying and what they are doing. While they are holding talks in Qatar, everyday in Afghanistan they are shedding more blood of innocent civilians,” Ghani said.
Meanwhile, the Taliban are also holding talks with the US in Qatar. The insurgents have expressed their satisfaction with the advances made in the negotiations, focused on the withdrawal of US troops and the Taliban’s promise that no terror group will attack another country while based on Afghan soil.
However, the ongoing talks have not prevented the Taliban from carrying out brutal attacks such as a suicide bombing against a Defence Ministry facility in Kabul on July 1 that killed 11 people and left 65 injured.
Afghan foes meet in bid to secure peace
Dozens of powerful Afghans including bitter rivals met with the Taliban in Doha on Sunday, amid separate talks between the US and the insurgents seeking to end 18 years of war.
Stakes are high for both sets of talks. Washington has said it wants to seal a political deal with the Taliban ahead of Afghan presidential polls due in September to allow foreign forces to begin to withdraw.
Security was tight at the luxury hotel hosting the intra-Afghan summit as around 70 delegates, who were required to surrender their phones, ushered into the hall and sat in a vast semi-circle facing a large video screen and the hosts from Qatar and Germany.
“Gathered around the table today are some of the brightest minds representing a cross-section of Afghan society,” said Markus Potzel, Germany’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, as he opened the gathering.
“Each of you will have a unique opportunity and a unique responsibility to find ways of turning violent confrontation into a peaceful debate.”
Taliban negotiator Abbas Stanikzai had a brief altercation with a security guard as he attempted to enter the secure conference area.
“We want to go to the dialogue but they are not letting us,” Stanikzai said to an officer who replied “we are not joking with you, stop shouting at us”.
But he and the rest of the Taliban delegation, which included Suhail Shaheen, the group’s Doha office spokesman, took their seats in the expansive ballroom shortly before the talks began at 0630 GMT.
The Qatar foreign ministry special envoy on counterterrorism Mutlaq al-Qahtani said: “We are so happy to see all our Afghan brothers and sisters meeting here in Doha.”
“We want a roadmap for the future of Afghanistan,” he told reporters after the hosts left the Afghan parties with mediators to begin discussions. The so-called intra-Afghan dialogue follows six days of direct US-Taliban talks that have been put on hold for the two day Afghan conference and are set to resume Tuesday, according to both sides. US lead negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad said Saturday that the latest round of US-Taliban talks “have been the most productive of the rounds we’ve had with the Talibs”.
“Essentially the four items we have been talking about ever since we started (are) terrorism, withdrawal of foreign troops, inter-Afghan negotiations and dialogue, and ceasefire,” Khalilzad told AFP.
“For the first time I can say we have had substantive discussions, negotiations, and progress on all four
issues.”
Shaheen, the Taliban spokesman in Qatar, said they were “happy with progress... We have not faced any
obstacles yet”.
