Toll rises to 16 dead, more than 100 wounded in Kabul blast: official

KABUL: The death toll from a massive blast claimed by the Taliban in Kabul has risen to 16 people — all civilians — with scores more wounded, an official said Tuesday.

“Sixteen killed, 119 wounded in last night’s attack. The explosion was caused by a tractor filled with explosives,” interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.

The blast comes as the US military is set to pull troops from five Afghan bases under a proposed deal with the Taliban.

The US envoy leading talks, Zalmay Khalilzad, who has spent about a year negotiating with the Taliban, said the draw-down would occur within about four months of a final deal being approved — provided the Taliban stick to their commitments.

“We have agreed that if the conditions proceed according to the agreement, we will leave within 135 days five bases in which we are present now,” Khalilzad told Tolo News, according to an excerpt of an interview the Afghan TV station published on Twitter.

The Afghan-born envoy was speaking in Dari, and Tolo said the full interview would be broadcast later Monday.

Khalilzad was in Kabul following the latest round of talks with the Taliban in Doha, after which he said the two sides were at the “threshold” of a deal. He met Monday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and showed him the draft of a proposed agreement.

The prospective deal centres on US troop reductions in return for several security guarantees from the Taliban, as well as broader peace talks between the insurgents and the Afghan government and an eventual ceasefire.

Still, even if many of 13,000 or so US troops in Afghanistan leave soon after the deal, President Donald Trump last week said America would maintain a permanent presence — with 8,600 troops initially — even after a deal is reached with the Taliban.