Afghan TV channel bus target of Kabul bombing

At least seven people were killed and 25 were wounded in the explosion late Wednesay.

The attack came just months after the group declared Tolo and 1TV, another private news channel, as legitimate “military targets”.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. It was not clear if the attack wounded any Afghan public officials or foreign diplomats.

The Taliban openly threatened to target the television channel a year ago after it reported allegations of summary executions, rape, kidnappings and other abuses by Taliban fighters during the battle for Kunduz.

The attack on Tolo TV was an “atrocity created to undermine Afghanistan’s still fragile media freedom”, the Human Rights Watch organization said in a statement.

The Taliban ruled the country from 1991 until it was ousted by the USA invasion in 2003.

The police chief for Kabul, Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahimi, said the seven civilians included two women.

Four people have been killed and 24 injured, Afghan Deputy Minister of Interior Muhammad Ayoub Salangi tweeted. On Wednesday, the group drove a bomb-laden vehicle into a bus carrying Tolo employees during rush-hour traffic in Kabul.

Envoys from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States are scheduled to meet in Kabul later this week to discuss possible peace initiatives.

According to the BBC, in announcing what had happened during a live broadcast, Fawad Aman, a news presenter for TOLOnews, said “The enemy of humanity, peace and Islam martyred our colleagues because they were exposing their crimes…” “We’ve frequently seen operations by the Taliban up in this area”, Phil Mudd, a counterterrorism analyst said on CNN.

In response to the widespread condemnation, the Taliban on Thursday again justified its attack on Tolo TV workers, saying it aimed at an “intelligence network and not media”.

“You can not silence our voice”, said of the presenters on Tolo News shortly after Wednesday’s attack.

The Taliban have launched numerous previous attacks on Kabul.

The Taliban on Thursday said it is not specifically targeting media as part of a widening insurgency, but warned organizations they should not align themselves with Tolo.