At least Thirteen people were killed in Kandhar's city of Maiwand and Ghazni on Monday. five people have been killed and about 40 people wounded after a suicide car bomber targeted a police base in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, a provincial official said.
Paramedics have been searching the rubble of homes destroyed by the explosion hours after the attack late on Sunday night in the province’s Maiwand district, said Mohammad Ashraf Nadery, the provincial director of Kandahar’s public health department.He said those wounded included both soldiers and civilians.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack that comes a week after 22 people, including 18 students, were killed when gunmen went on a rampage at Kabul University, an attack claimed by the ISIL (SIS) armed group.
In Pul-e-Charkhi area of the capital, Kabul, a roadside mine blast on Monday wounded at least two civilians, according to local media reports.
Kandahar has been a stronghold for armed groups since the 2001 US-led invasion following the September 11 attacks on the US.
Violence has soared in Afghanistan in recent months, even as Taliban and government negotiators hold peace talks in Qatar.
The two sides have made little progress and attacks continue despite warnings from the US that continued violence could derail the talks.
Under a February agreement signed with the US, the Taliban have committed to fighting armed groups and those who threaten the US in Afghanistan, specifically ISIL and al-Qaeda.
In a separate development, eight women and children were killed, and four children and three women wounded after three mortar shells fired by Taliban militants to strike Police District 6 of Ghazni city, capital of eastern Ghazni province late on Sunday, the local government confirmed.
In eastern Paktia province, a suicide car bomber, who tried to assault a police station, detonated the car bomb after police intercepted and fired on his vehicle in Police District 3 of provincial capital Gardez city also late on Sunday.
The assailant was killed in the explosion and a mosque and several houses and parts of the police station were damaged by the force of the blast.
