At Least 13 Killed in Suicide Bombing Outside Ministry in Afghan Capital

  • 6/11/2018
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At least 13 people were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to Afghanistans rural rehabilitation and development ministry in the west of Kabul, government spokesmen said. More than 30 people were wounded in the blast. Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said a suicide bomber on foot struck outside the Ministry as employees were leaving work. Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh confirmed the toll "Woman, children and employees of the (rehabilitation) ministry are among the victims," Najib Danish, spokesman for the interior ministry, told Reuters. The ISIS terrorist group later claimed responsibility for the attack. The bombing came shortly after Afghan Taliban militants on Saturday announced a surprise three-day ceasefire over the Muslim Eid holiday at the end of this week, their first offer of its kind, days after the government declared an unconditional ceasefire of its own against the Taliban. It was not clear exactly when the Taliban ceasefire would begin, as Eid starts when the moon is first sighted, but it will be Thursday or Friday. The government ceasefire runs until June 20. A week ago, a motorcycle suicide bomber killed 14 people near a gathering of Muslim clerics in the Afghan capital after they had issued a fatwa against suicide bombings, officials said, in the latest in a series of attacks to hit Kabul. In April, two explosions in Kabul killed at least 26 people, including nine journalists who had arrived to report on an initial blast and were targeted by a suicide bomber. A week earlier, 60 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a voter registration center in the city. Elsewhere in Afghanistan on Monday, a roadside bomb struck a microbus in eastern the eastern Ghazni province, killing six people. Arif Noori, a spokesman for the governor of the Ghazni province, said women and children were among those killed in the blast, which also wounded three people. He added that the bomb was planted by the Taliban. The insurgents mostly target security forces and government officials, but their roadside bombs often kill civilians. Elsewhere in Ghazni, at least three local police and 10 Taliban fighters were killed in clashes, Noori said. In the eastern Nangarhar province, a suicide bomber wounded at least 10 civilians when he struck near the education department in the provincial capital of Jalalabad, announced Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor. He said three other suicide bombers were shot and killed by security forces as they tried to enter the building. He stated a vehicle filled with explosives was found near the scene of the attack. In a separate attack in the same province, a sticky bomb wounded 14 civilians in the Chaparhar district, according to hospital spokesman Inamullah Miakhail. Gen. Ghulam Sanayee Stanekzai, provincial police chief in Nangarhar, said the bomb went off as people were shopping in a market. No one claimed either attack. Both the Taliban and ISIS are active in eastern Afghanistan, especially Nangarhar.

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