Security

ISIS, Taliban strike Kabul with three separate bombings

Salaam Times and AFP

A boy walks past the wreckage of a bus following a suicide bombing in Kabul on July 25. [STR/AFP]

A boy walks past the wreckage of a bus following a suicide bombing in Kabul on July 25. [STR/AFP]

KABUL -- At least 10 people -- including several women and a child -- were killed and 41 others wounded by a series of blasts in Kabul Thursday (July 25).

The three blasts came amid a wider surge in violence in Kabul and around Afghanistan, where nine family members were killed in Nangarhar Province Thursday while heading to a wedding.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for one of the blasts, while the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) claimed the two others via its media arm Amaq.

The violence comes just three days before the official campaign season for the September 28 presidential election begins.

An injured man is brought on a stretcher to the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital following three blasts in Kabul on July 25. [WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP]

An injured man is brought on a stretcher to the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital following three blasts in Kabul on July 25. [WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP]

The first blast came around 8.10 am local time when a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle hit a bus in eastern Kabul, said Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi. The bus belonged to the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, he added.

A second blast detonated nearby soon after, with a third coming in a separate district in eastern Kabul, Rahimi added.

The toll from the blasts was at least 10 dead, including five women and a child, and 41 wounded, according to Health Ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar.

Family killed

The Afghan war continues to take a brutal toll on civilians even amid the push for peace.

A car carrying a family to a wedding was hit by a roadside bomb Thursday in Khogyani District, said Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor.

Six women and three children were killed, he said. No group immediately claimed responsibility; however, the Taliban are known for burying land mines meant for Afghan security forces.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, who is in Kabul this week, is expected to travel to Qatar in coming days for a new round of talks with the Taliban.

Civilians continue to pay a heavy price in Afghanistan's raging conflict, with last year the deadliest on record for ordinary Afghans.

According to a UN tally, at 3,804 civilians died in the war in 2018, including 927 children.

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