Taliban car bomb goes off among Afghan security forces

A car bomb attack, claimed by the Taliban militant group, has claimed the lives of at least eight Afghan security forces in the country’s eastern province of Logar.

Local officials said the fatalities took place in Mohammad Agha district in the restive province on Sunday morning.

They said a bomber detonated his explosive-laden car close to a convoy of the provincial governor on a major highway between Logar and the capital city of Kabul.

Shahpoor Ahmadzai, the spokesman for Logar's provincial police, said 10 people were also injured in the attack but the governor and the provincial chief of the intelligence agency were unharmed.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the incident in a statement and said a "large number" of Afghan special forces had been killed or wounded.

Logar, which is known as a strategic gateway to Kabul, is vulnerable to attacks due to the Taliban's active presence there.

The Taliban’s five-year rule over at least three quarters of Afghanistan came to an end in the wake of a US-led invasion in 2001, but 17 years on, the militant group continues to challenge the government and thousands of foreign troops remaining on Afghan soil.

The US is currently pushing for a peace deal with the militants to spare its troops but negotiations remain deadlocked over the Taliban demand that American forces leave Afghanistan. 

In recent months, Taliban militants have stepped up attacks on security forces across Afghanistan, killing a large number of police forces as well as civilians.

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