Three bomb blasts hit Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, Al Jazeera reported.
The first explosion killed eight employees of the country’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, and injured 27, said the ministry’s spokesperson Qadeer Mufti. The explosion was triggered by a suicide bomber who blew himself up on a motorcycle in front of the bus, AP quoted Nasrat Rahim, a spokesperson of Kabul’s interior ministry, as saying.
Minutes later, a suicide bomber’s attack a few metres away killed seven people and injured 20. “First a magnetic bomb pasted to a minibus exploded, then a suicide bomber blew himself near the bus attack site and the third blast happened when a car was blown up by unknown militants,” Al Jazeera quoted Rahim as saying. “The death toll could rise from all the three blasts.”
A spokesperson for the Taliban claimed responsibility for the car bomb in Spechari area of Kabul, but denied any involvement in the other bombings. The Islamic State group said it was behind the other two blasts in Kabul, Reuters quoted the terror group’s news agency Amaq as saying.
Spokesperson for Afghanistan’s health ministry Wahidullah Mayar said that at least 41 people were wounded in the attacks.
“The Ministry calls upon the national security and intelligence agencies to seriously interrogate the attack and act against the perpetrators,” Acting Minister of Mines and Petroleum Nargis Nehan was quoted as saying by the ministry’s spokesperson. “May Allah bless the martyrs with Jannah and the injured with speedy recovery.”
In another blast in the eastern Nangarhar province, a roadside bomb killed seven and wounded four, a government spokesperson said, according to AP.
The Taliban has been frequently launching attacks in the country despite talks with the United States to end the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan. The United States is negotiating an accord that would entail foreign security forces moving out of the country in exchange for several guarantees from the terror group.
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