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Of: TT
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A car bomb has claimed several lives in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
At least 15 people were killed and more than 50 injured when a car bomb exploded in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday. Among the dead are civilians and military personnel, and the death toll is feared to rise.
According to local officials, the attack targeted an adjacent government building, which also houses military installations, in the Ghani Khel district of Nangarhar province.
“Several armed robbers tried to enter the building after the attack, but were killed by security forces,” said the mayor’s spokeswoman, Attaullah Khogyani.
As recently as Tuesday, at least 14 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed by a roadside bomb in central Afghanistan. No one has yet claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack, but according to a spokesman for the country’s Interior Ministry, the Taliban are believed to be behind it. In the past two weeks, the Taliban have carried out 650 separate attacks in the country, claiming a total of nearly 70 lives.
Violence plagues the war-torn country in parallel with ongoing peace talks in Qatar, where Afghan government officials are negotiating with the Taliban in hopes of ending decades of unrest. Until now, the Taliban movement has ignored calls to the government and the outside world for a ceasefire and a reduction in violence.
According to the Interior Ministry, a high-ranking Taliban leader was killed by security forces on Friday, when several members of the movement were arrested at the same time.
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