KABUL: At least 10 people including two NATO troops killed in a Kabul bombing on Thursday, another attack on the Afghan capital just as a US envoy returned to talks on troop withdrawal.
The car bomb blast shook Shash Darak, a heavily fortified area adjacent to the Green Zone and home to several important complexes including the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service.
Apparent surveillance footage of the attack, which occurred at about 10:10 am (0540 GMT), showed a grey minivan explode just after it had cut in front of a line of white SUVs waiting to make a right turn onto a street.
Resolute Support, the US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan, said a Romanian and an American service member had been killed in the explosion.
According to interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi, at least 10 people were killed and 42 more wounded.
On Thursday, the State Department said that the US negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, had returned to Qatar for further talks with the Taliban.
The deal still needs the approval of President Donald Trump, who has said that he wants to end American involvement launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
According to parts of the deal made public so far, the Pentagon would pull about 5,000 of its roughly 13,000 or so troops from five bases across Afghanistan by early next year.
The Afghan government has expressed doubts about the prospective deal, saying officials need more information about the risks it poses.
“There is too much concern about it, and we are still not assured of what consequences this agreement could have for Afghanistan’s future,” presidential advisor Waheed Omar said Thursday.
Afghanistan’s intelligence chief Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, who has come under intense pressure over the violence, quit Thursday following a deadly raid in the east of the country.
Leave a Comment