Kabul Explosions Kill One, Wound More Than A Dozen

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 28, 2020

Afghan police say two explosions in the capital Kabul have killed at least one person and wounded more than a dozen others.

One blast targeted employees of the National Statistics Authority who were in a minibus in the Guzargah neighborhood.

Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said the explosion on December 28 killed one person and wounded at least 13 others. He said the bomb had been planted on a bicycle.

Earlier, a magnetic “sticky” bomb attached to a police vehicle went off in the Kolola Pushta area of the city, Faramarz said, but caused no casualties.

He said investigations had been launched into both attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack.

Kabul has been hit by a spate of bomb blasts and targeted killings in recent months.

The attacks come as peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha, have been suspended until early next month.

Based on reporting by AP and dpa

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

More Security News

Three Afghan Senators Arrested Amid Bribery Allegations

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 28, 2020

KABUL — Afghan authorities say they have arrested three senators who are accused of taking a $40,000 bribe.

The Afghan Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and the National Directorate of Security announced in a joint statement on December 28 that the trio was caught during an operation in the northern province of Balkh.

They said the senators, who were not named, had been dispatched to Balkh to monitor the financial situation in the province.

Provincial Balkh Governor Farhad Azimi said the three were arrested while receiving bribes from a tax office in Balkh and were sent to Kabul.

The Senate, which the statement said was informed of their arrests, has yet to comment on the matter.

President Ashraf Ghani’s office told RFE/RL that two of the senators were dismissed from their seats in the upper house of parliament.

Spokesman Dawa Khan Mina Pal said the pair had been appointed by Ghani, while the third accused senator was elected.

It is said to be the first time that Afghan senators have been arrested on corruption allegations.

Earlier this year, Transparency International’s report on corruption worldwide ranked Afghanistan 173 out of 180 countries.

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Doha to host next round of talks between Afghan government, Taliban: Official

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Press TV
December 27, 2020

A top Afghan official has said the next round of talks between the government and the Taliban will begin in Qatar next month, as President Ashraf Ghani’s calls to move the dialogue back home remains unanswered.

“The second round of talks will begin on January 5 in Doha,” spokesman for Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation Faraidoon Khwazoon tweeted on Sunday.

He said many of the countries that had earlier volunteered to host the talks withdrew their offers because of the spread of COVID-19.

The Afghan government and the Taliban held the first round of the intra-Afghan negotiations in Doha on September 12. The two sides took a break after striking a preliminary deal to end the conflict in Afghanistan.

It marked the first time the two warring sides reached a written agreement since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Prior to the deal, the US and the Taliban reached a deal on the withdrawal of the remaining 12,000 US troops in exchange for the Taliban’s halting of their attacks on international forces. However, clashes and bombings continue to claim lives in the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, Ghani and some other senior officials have called for the talks to be moved back home, with Ghani underlining the need for the Afghan people to see how the talks proceed.

“We would prefer the second round of peace talks to take place inside Afghanistan,” Ghani’s spokesman, Sediq Sediqqi, quoted the Afghan president as saying in a cabinet meeting earlier this month.

But the Taliban, which has in the past refused to hold talks in Afghanistan, has not responded to Ghani’s call.

Related

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Tolo News: The Taliban has dug up the grave of a former police commander in Uruzgan and mutilated his body, the police commander’s family said. Shah Mohammad Shah, the district police chief for Dihrawood district, was killed in an attack by armed men in the district on June 30. His family members said this act by the Taliban is against all principles of Islam and is a violation of humanitarian law. Click here to read more (external link).

300 security checkpoints deliberately evacuated for Taliban in Kandahar: probe

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1TV: As many as 300 security checkpoints in southern Kandahar province have deliberately been evacuated to be seized by the Taliban, an investigation by the Senate reveals. The Senate team which carried out the probe did not say who ordered the security forces to evacuate their checkpoints. Hashim Alokozay, head of the delegation, said it happened following telephonic conversations. Click here to read more (external link).

Trump claims Afghan elections ‘better run, more secure’ than US polls

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Donald Trump

Ariana: Outgoing US President Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that a “young military man” said elections in Afghanistan were “far more secure and much better run” than the US presidential election of 2020. This despite Taliban suicide bombings killing scores of innocent people during a 2019 Afghan presidential election that devolved into a monthslong political battle between candidates who both claimed victory, Task and Purpose reported. Click here to read more (external link).

COVID-19: 160 New Cases, 12 Deaths Reported in Afghanistan

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Sunday reported 160 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,593 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The Health Ministry reports the cumulative total cases at 52,007, the number of total reported deaths at 2,170, and the total number of recoveries at 41,331. Click here to read more (external link).