JALALABAD, Afghanistan, July 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A suicide attacker blew
himself up near an Afghan security forces vehicle on Tuesday, killing at
least 12 people, mostly civilians, officials said, in the latest deadly
violence to rock the country.
The explosion in the eastern city of Jalalabad also left at least five
people wounded and set a nearby petrol station alight, the provincial
governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP.
Some of the victims were brought to hospital with severe burns, health
director Najibullah Kamawal said, confirming the casualty toll.
“I saw a big ball of fire that threw people away. The people were
burning,” Esmatullah, who witnessed the incident, told AFP.
Tolo News posted a video online purportedly showing several burned-out
vehicles and gutted shops at the scene of the attack.
The Islamic State group claimed the attack via its Amaq propaganda agency
— the latest carried out by the extremists in restive Nangarhar province,
which borders Pakistan.
IS has claimed a series of high-casualty suicide bomb attacks in the
province in recent weeks, as US and Afghan forces continue offensive
operations against the group.
While the Taliban is Afghanistan’s largest militant group, IS has a
relatively small but potent presence mainly in the east and north of the
country.
– Violence to continue –
Tuesday’s attack comes a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
expressed “hope” for peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban,
during an unannounced visit to Kabul.
Pompeo’s first trip to Afghanistan since he was sworn in as America’s top
diplomat in April came amid renewed optimism for peace in the war-weary
country, following last month’s unprecedented ceasefire by the Taliban and
Kabul during Eid.
The Islamic holiday was marked by spontaneous street celebrations
involving Afghan security forces and Taliban militants, raising hopes peace
was possible after 17 years of war.
“An element of the progress is the capacity that we now have to believe
that there is now hope,” Pompeo told a joint press conference with Afghan
President Ashraf Ghani.
“Many of the Taliban now see that they can’t win on the ground militarily.
That’s very deeply connected to President Trump’s strategy,” he said,
referring to Trump’s much-vaunted South Asia policy announced last August.
The ceasefire did not extend to the IS franchise in Afghanistan, which
first emerged in the country in 2014 and established a stronghold in
Nangarhar before spreading north.
The most recent major attack in Jalalabad on July 1 saw 19 people killed
and 21 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of Afghan
Sikhs and Hindus.
The group had been waiting to meet Ghani, who was visiting the city, when
the bomber struck.
That came after two separate suicide attacks in Nangarhar during the
ceasefire that were also claimed by IS.
Violence is expected to continue ahead of Afghanistan’s long-delayed
legislative elections on October 20 that militants have vowed to disrupt.
Afghan security forces, already struggling to beat back the Taliban and IS
on the battlefield, will be responsible for protecting polling stations, many
of which will be located in schools.