Afghan president condemns bombing in Kabul residential area

“A suicide bomber on foot blew himself up near the academy”, said Deputy Interior Ministry Spokesman Najib Danish. The attacker set off the explosives Friday evening just as the academy’s cadets were getting back from a break. A bomb hidden in a truck exploded in the center of the Afghan capital, killing several people and wounding hundreds, police and health officials said Friday. The students were waiting in line to be searched before returning to the academy grounds, reported Reuters.

Sediqi further added that the attack in a market carried out in the early minutes of Friday morning shows the extreme savagery and un-Islamic movements of the terrorist groups.

President Ashraf Ghani’s spokesman, Sayed Zafar Hashemi, said in a media briefing on August 7 that 47 women and 30 children were among the wounded in that blast.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the incident, reports hinted Taliban was behind the deadly attack.

A United Nations report published Wednesday said civilian casualties in Afghanistan hit a record high in the first half of 2015.

It occured hours after another blast in Kabul left 15 civilians dead and over 240 injured.

The Taliban said it was not behind the explosion, though it does not usually claim responsibility for attacks that kill or maim large numbers of civilians, especially women and children.

The statistics are a grim indicator of the rising violence as the Taliban insurgency spreads north from its traditional southern and eastern strongholds, with Afghan forces increasingly battling the militants on their own.

The attack is the first in Kabul since news emerged that the leaders of two of the country’s most powerful insurgent networks had died – possibly years before the official announcements.

The powerful army chief of Pakistan, the Taliban’s historic sponsors, said this week that ongoing efforts at talks are the “only credible way” to achieve lasting peace in the region. A second round of peace talks – scheduled for last Friday – was cancelled after the news surfaced of the leader’s death.