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AFGHANISTAN-CONFLICT-ELECTION
Taliban bombers kill 19, including Afghan election workers
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Taliban bombers
targeting a district centre in southern Afghanistan have killed at least 19
people, including eight election workers, officials said on Sunday.
The attack comes as a new round of talks between the United States and the
Taliban to end the 18-year long war in Afghanistan entered a second day in
Qatar.
The militants rammed four armoured vehicles packed with explosives into a
government compound in Maruf district late Saturday, a police spokesman in
southern Kandahar province said.
“Unfortunately 11 policemen were martyred and 27 more injured,” Qasim
Afghan told AFP.
Eight election workers who were stationed at the centre to register voters
ahead of the presidential polls in September were also killed in the attack,
said Zabiullah Sadaat, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Independent Election
Commission (IEC).
Afghanistan’s twice-delayed presidential election is now slated for
September 28.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with a spokesman
tweeting that their fighters had captured the district centre, killing 57
security forces.
Afghanistan’s interior ministry however rejected the claim, saying in a
statement that the militants had been beaten back and 25 insurgents killed.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the “barbaric and unforgivable”
attacks, which are the latest in a relentless wave of assaults by the
Taliban, who now hold sway over about half of the country and regularly
target government forces.
The insurgents killed at least 25 members of a pro-government militia in
an attack in northern Baghlan province on Saturday.
The violence comes amid stepped-up efforts by the United States to find a
negotiated end to America’s longest war, with Washington and the Taliban
opening a fresh round of negotiations in Doha on Saturday.
BSS/AFP/BZC/2040HRS