Conflicts & War

11 killed in roadside explosion in southern Afghanistan

Kabul, May 10 (EFE).- At least 11 civilians were killed and 28 others were wounded Monday after a passenger bus was hit by two roadside bombs planted by the Taliban in Zabul province in southern Afghanistan, according to official sources.

The bombing occurred shortly after midnight in Shahr-e-Safa district along the main highway connecting the capital city of Kabul to southern Kandahar province, Zabul governor’s spokesperson Gul Islam Seyal told EFE.

“Two roadside bombs hit a 404 model passenger bus in which 11 civilians were martyred and several others were injured in Shahr-e-Safa district,” Seyal said.

The casualties included women and children traveling on the bus from Kabul to southern Kandahar province.

The bodies of the deceased were shifted to a provincial hospital and will be handed over to their families, while the injured have been evacuated to southern Kandahar province for better treatment, according to Seyal.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Tariq Arian confirmed that 28 civilians traveling on the bus were injured.

“The Taliban, by planting roadside bombs, always targets civilians. The common victims of these terrorist acts are ordinary citizens including women and children,” Arian told EFE.

The insurgents, as is usually the case in such incidents, is yet to claim responsibility or deny their involvement in the attack.

Planting roadside bombs is a prefered war tactic of the Taliban against the Afghan security forces, although most of the victims of such attacks happen to to be civilians.

Violence has surged in recent weeks in Afghanistan, especially since May 1, the date when all US and NATO forces were supposed to have been out of Afghanistan under the agreement the Taliban signed last year with the then-president of the United States, Donald Trump.

The current president, Joe Biden, announced last month that he was postponing the target date for full withdrawal of US forces until Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington by al-Qaeda militants under the command of Osama bin Laden, then living in Afghanistan.

At least 50 people died and over 100 others were injured in a bomb attack near a secondary school for girls in west Kabul on Saturday.

The attack was attributed to the Taliban by the government.

It was the latest in a stream of attacks carried out by the insurgents on the country’s educational institutions, including a car bomb attack in Logar province on May 1 and another against Kabul University months ago.

Earlier Monday, the Taliban announced a three-day nationwide unilateral ceasefire during the festival of Eid-ul-Fitr this week, marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. EFE

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