American soldier killed, others wounded in Kabul attacks

Earlier in the day, a massive truck bomb killed at least 15 people in a residential area of Kabul.

Either way, the results of these attacks that killed more than 70, do not bode well for the Afghan government who have been trying to negotiate a peace agreement with the Taliban.

Friday’s attacks come a more than a week after the Afghan intelligence service announced that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had been dead for more than two years.

Afghan officials were quick to congratulate themselves, noting that in none of the three attacks, scattered widely around the capital, did the insurgents manage to breach their targets’ inner defenses. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for two of Friday’s multiple deadly attacks, though officials indicated they believed the Taliban were also behind a third one.

As far as the level of Pakistan-induced violence is concerned, it seems to have made no difference whatsoever that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has for long been engaged in peace negotiations – chaperoned by the US and China – with the section of the Taliban leadership that is in Islamabad’s direct control.

“We strongly condemn the series of insurgent attacks in Kabul”, said Mark Toner, the State Department’s deputy spokesperson.

Last Monday, the Taliban released a video in which they showed members of the group pledging allegiance to the new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour.

A suicide bomber in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province killed 29 people on Saturday evening.

Some 240 others were wounded in the blast which was one of the largest ever in Kabul, flattening a city block and leaving a 30ft crater.

Scores of women and children were among the victims. The United Nations Special Representative, Nicholas Haysom, called it “extreme, irreversible and unjustifiable in any terms”.

“The situation is just getting worse”.

All casualties of the truck bomb blast were civilian, according to Kabir Amiri, spokesman for Kabul hospitals.

“We have been of course urging the Taliban to talk rather than fight because ultimately fighting is not a solution”, said Aziz. Local forces are now responsible for most security duties, although some 13,000 foreign personnel remain in the country to provide training and conduct counter-terrorism operations. An hourslong firefight ensued.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — One worldwide service member and eight Afghan contractors were killed in an attack on a military base in the Afghan capital, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation official said Saturday. Several U.S. troops were injured.

“The helicopters went on for hours… medevac-ing people out”, a U.S. contractor at a camp nearby said.

“We want this senseless bloodshed to end”, said Jamel Shah Stanikzai, a man in his 20s who attended the vigil. Effectively, the peace process is paused while the leadership contest is resolved one way or the other.

A suicide bomber at the base’s entrance started the attack late Friday.

Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network said: “The hope of some people was that the death of Mullah Omar would put the Taliban in disarray and possibly weaken them, I think that was a little over optimistic”.