KABUL
(Reuters) - A Taliban suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in the western part
of Kabul on Monday, killing up to 35 people and wounding more than 40,
government officials said, in one of the worst attacks in the Afghan capital in
recent weeks.
Police
cordoned off the area, located near the house of the deputy government Chief
Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq in a part of the city where many of the mainly
Shi'ite Hazara community live.
Monday's
suicide bombing, which targeted government personnel, continued the unrelenting
violence that has killed more than 1,700 civilians in Afghanistan so far this
year.
The Taliban,
which is battling the Western-backed government and a NATO-led coalition for
control of Afghanistan, has launched a wave of attacks around the country in
recent days, sparking fighting in more than half a dozen provinces.
"I was
in my shop when suddenly I heard a terrible sound and as a result all of my
shop windows shattered," said Ali Ahmed, a resident in the area of
Monday's blast.
Acting
Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said at least 24 people had been
killed and 40 wounded but the casualty toll could rise further.
Another
senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to talk about the incident with the media, said the toll stood at 35
killed. That was in line with a claim on Twitter by Taliban spokesman
Zabihullah Mujahid, who said 37 "intelligence workers" had been
killed.
Mujahid said
in a tweet claiming responsibility for the attack the target had been two buses
that had been under surveillance for two months.
Government
security forces said a small bus owned by the Ministry of Mines had been
destroyed in the blast but the National Directorate for Security, the main
intelligence agency, said none of its personnel had been hit.
Three
civilian vehicles and 15 shops were destroyed or damaged in the blast, the
Interior Ministry said in a statement.
At least
1,662 civilians had already been killed in Afghanistan in the first half of the
year.
Kabul has
accounted for at least 20 percent of all civilian casualties this year,
including at least 150 people killed in a massive truck bomb attack at the end
of May, according to United Nations figures.
The Islamic
State group claimed an attack on a mosque in the capital two weeks ago that
killed at least four people.
On Sunday,
dozens of Afghan troops were under siege after Taliban fighters overran a
district in northern Faryab province, a spokesman for the provincial police
said.
There was
also fighting in Baghlan, Badakhshan, and Kunduz provinces in Afghanistan's
north, and Kandahar, Helmand, and Uruzgan in the south, according to officials.
The
resurgence of violence also coincides with the U.S. administration weighing up
its strategic options for Afghanistan, including the possibility of sending
more troops to bolster the NATO-led training and advisory mission already
helping Afghan forces.
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