KABUL (AFP): At least 15 people were killed and more than 30 sustained injuries in a car bomb attack, which reportedly targeted a government building in eastern Afghanistan today (Saturday).
“The explosion occurred at an administrative building that also housed some military facilities. in the Ghani Khel district of Nangarhar province,” the governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani informed. Afghanistan umpire Bismillah Jan Shinwari also died in the car bomb attack.
After the attack, several armed attackers tried to enter the building but were killed by security forces. “The car bomb detonated at the entrance of the district headquarters building,” the spokesman added.
Provincial police spokesman Farid Khan confirmed the details. He said that most of the victims were Afghan security force members, but at least eight civilians were also among the dead.
No one had so far claimed responsibility for the attack but Farid Khan has blamed the Taliban. Armed groups such as ISIL (ISIS) and the Taliban have carried out attacks against the Afghan government, national security and defence personnel, and civilians.
The attack comes as representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban are engaged in negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha, to end the country’s decades-long war. The intra-Afghan talks followed a US-Taliban peace deal signed in February in Doha.
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