35 Hurt in Car Bomb Blast in Kandahar, Afghanistan
Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News
December 7, 2020
ISLAMABAD – A car bomb attack wounded at least 35 people, including women and children, in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province early Monday.
Provincial officials said the attack near the headquarters of Daman district police was carried out using a Mazda mini truck. The bombing damaged parts of the building along with several nearby houses. Fifteen civilians became victims of the attack along with several police officers, operatives of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency the National Directorate of Security, and the district police chief, Abdul Wadoud.
Shadi Khan, the chief of the district, said local officials were in a meeting inside when the bomb detonated.
“The walls of the district police headquarters and district center were destroyed. There is not a single window or door that was not damaged,” Khan said, describing the extent of the destruction.
The Kabul-Kandahar highway was closed for some time after Monday’s attack.
Baheer Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor, said “all except one victim were only slightly wounded.” He added that the one person in critical condition has been moved to the Mirwais regional hospital.
Daman district is located east of the Kandahar city. No group has claimed responsibility so far.
The attack came days after the Taliban and the Afghan government’s teams in Doha made progress in negotiations aimed at ending decades of conflict.
The international community has repeatedly expressed its concern at what several governments and international agencies have called an unacceptably high level of violence in Afghanistan. In a recent statement condemning attacks on media, rights defenders, and religious leaders, the European Union reiterated that “the Taliban and various terrorist organizations are responsible for the significant majority of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.”
The country has seen multiple car bomb attacks in the last few months, some of them deadly. A similar car bomb attack on a security forces’ compound in Ghazni province last month killed 30 security personnel.
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Pompeo Says Violence In Afghanistan ‘Unacceptably High’ As Peace Talks Get Under Way
Mike Pompeo
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 5, 2020
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says violence in Afghanistan is “unacceptably high” as delayed peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban get under way.
Pompeo said that Washington has asked the warring parties “to stand back and indeed stand down,” adding that he hoped that the two sides can begin to address some of the “front end” issues, including a nationwide cease-fire.
Pompeo’s comments, made in a virtual address to an annual security conference on December 4, came two days after Afghan government and Taliban negotiators reached a deal in Doha to proceed with talks aimed at ending 19 years of war.
The deal was considered a breakthrough because it advances talks beyond basic procedural questions to more substantive issues, including reaching an elusive cease-fire.
Pompeo said that he met with the negotiating teams during a visit to Doha on November 21.
“I made clear to them that the violence levels can’t continue while these negotiations go on and it won’t work,” Pompeo said.
Earlier this week, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said that he was heading back to the region to gather international support for the peace talks.
The negotiations were to have begun on March 10, but they were delayed by disputes mainly over prisoner releases and the rules and procedure for the talks amid continuing violence.
The U.S.-backed government has held power in Afghanistan since 2001, though the Taliban controls large swaths of the country and the government in Kabul is considered weak.
Under a U.S.-Taliban deal signed in Doha in February, all foreign forces are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for security guarantees from the militant group. NATO has roughly 11,000 troops in Afghanistan from several countries.
In November, the Trump administration announced that 2,000 American troops will exit Afghanistan by mid-January, leaving just 2,500 behind.
How the peace process develops, and the pace of any further U.S. withdrawal, is expected to be determined after the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden takes power in January.
Based on reporting by Reuters and tolonews.com
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.
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