News / Afghanistan

Bomb explosion kills six civilians in SE Afghanistan

Monday, 08 February 2016 6:09 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 09 February 2016 12:08 PM ]

Afghan security personnel investigate the site of an attack after a bomb blast at the entrance to a police base in Kabul on February 1, 2016. (AFP photo)

A bomb explosion has rocked an area in southeastern Afghanistan, killing at least six civilians and injuring nine others, security sources say.

According to local Afghan officials, the casualties were caused after the blast occurred in front of a bakery in Yahya Khil district in Paktika Province on Monday.

Local residents and witnesses said that the blast targeted police and government employees buying bread in the troubled region.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the blast.

The attack comes hours after at least three Afghan soldiers were killed and nearly two dozen others injured in an attack on a bus carrying Afghan army personnel near the Balkh provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif.

In an email to media, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.

Also on February 1, a bomb blast outside a police station in the capital, Kabul, killed at least 20 people and injured 29 others, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

According to some government and diplomatic sources, Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Noor-ul-Haq Olomi has offered his resignation to President Ashraf Ghani amid growing criticism over the deteriorating security situation in the war-wracked country. The sources said the resignation has not been accepted by Ghani yet as he is still looking for a replacement.

A file photo shows Taliban militants in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity over 14 years after the United States and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The 2001 attack overthrew the Taliban, but many areas across Afghanistan still face violence and insecurity.

Afghan forces have been engaged in military operations across the country to end the Taliban-led militancy and violence.

In addition to that, some districts in Afghanistan, including the volatile Nangarhar Province, have been witnessing a rise in the number of Daesh terrorists in recent months as the terror group, which is mainly operating in Iraq and Syria, is making inroads into Afghanistan with the number of its followers growing across the country.

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