At least 15 civilians killed in explosion in central Afghanistan
Kabul, Sep 29 (efe-epa).- At least 15 civilians were killed and another three were injured on Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded when their vehicle was passing through in the central province of Daikundi in Afghanistan, according to official sources.
The incident took place at around 9.20 am in a remote and insecure part of Kijran district, where the minivan carrying around 18 people to a shrine came under attack, Provincial Police spokesperson Gulaqa Sijadi told EFE.
“Unfortunately, in this deadly blast 15 people including seven women and six children have been martyred and another three children on board have been injured,” Sijadi said.
He underlined that Kijran district shares a border with insecure parts of southern Helmand province, where the Taliban are in control of most of the areas.
Spokesperson of the Daikundi governor’s office, Abas Kamyar, told EFE that the security agencies were investigating the blast for further details, which would be released later.
Meanwhile, Interior Ministry spokesperson Tariq Arian, in a statement, blamed the blamed the insurgents for the attack, claiming it was the latest “in the recent series of Taliban crimes against civilians in the country.”
“In the past six months due to the terrorist attacks of the Taliban, our 3,050 countrymen have been killed and injured,” Arian said.
On Monday, at least nine personnel of the Afghan security forces were killed in a Taliban attack in the central Bamyan province, considered one of the safest in the country.
These incidents comes at a time when representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban are holding initial meetings for the ongoing peace negotiations in the Qattari capital of Doha for the last 17 days.
The attacks could signify an attempt by the Taliban to show that it had the capability to expand to areas considered safe and outside its influence, or even gain leverage in the peace negotiations.
A ceasefire between the Afghan security forces and the Taliban is expected to be one of the top points on the agenda of the negotiators.
However, the discussions have remained stuck over various disagreements, including the role of the United States’ agreement with the Taliban in the peace process, as the insurgents demanded on Sunday that the talks should be based on their agreement with Washington signed in February. EFE-EPA
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