Explosion in Afghan capital wounds 3; Taliban claim responsibility

A 12-year-old boy was killed during Friday’s attack, and 15 people were wounded, doctors at Emergency, a trauma hospital in central Kabul reported on its Twitter account.

Multiple people were injured on Thursday in an attack on a French restaurant in Kabul, Afghan police say.

The attack comes as Afghanistan and Pakistan try to lay the ground for peace negotiations with the Taliban. A Taliban spokesman said the bomber targeted a restaurant belonging to foreigners.

“A number of suicide bombers could be around the compond and securituy forces have arrived at the scene and are clearing the area”.

His comment typifies what many in Afghanistan feel, seemingly trapped in a hopeless quagmire after 14 years of war, with civilians increasingly caught between the government and a resurgent Taliban.

The Taliban militant group is yet to make comments regarding the same.

On 22 December, six USA soldiers were killed when a suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden motorcycle into a joint Nato-Afghan patrol near Bagram airbase. The restaurant has several heavy metal doors and security checks.

The attack, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, targeted Le Jardin, which is owned by the governor of Kabul, a former official in the administration of former President Hamid Karzai.

A witness said the blast shattered windows throughout the restaurant’s vicinity.

The Taliban didn’t wait long into to the new year for their first attack, launching a suicide bombing at a French restaurant in Kabul, before other fighters had a shootout with police.

The attacks have coincided with efforts to revive the stalled peace process with the Taleban that broke down in July.