KABUL – Taliban militants Wednesday overran a central Kabul compoundhousing an international aid organisation, Afghan officials said, thelatest assault to rock the war-torn city.
The attack comes as the US and Taliban representatives continuenegotiations in Qatar aimed at bringing an end to the nearly 18-year-oldconflict, while fighting continues to rage across Afghanistan.
Interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said the latest attack began withan explosion near the offices of Counterpart International, an NGO withoperations in Afghanistan.
Officials earlier wrongly identified the target as the nearby CAREInternational.
“Some attackers have entered the NGO’s compound. The police have surroundedthe area and a clearing operation is ongoing,” Rahimi said.
In a tweet, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Counterpart wasinvolved in “harmful” activities in Afghanistan, and was linked to USAID.
Wahidullah Mayar, the spokesman for the ministry of public health, said atleast nine people had been wounded.
Witnesses said the explosion shook nearby buildings and shattered windows.
?We started running out of the building and while running outside I heardsmall gunfire and the sound of grenades going off nearby,” said Akbar KhanSahadat, a prosecutor in the Attorney General?s office which was close tothe scene of the blast.
Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told AFP earlier this week thatthe latest round of peace talks had been bogged down over the issue of whenforeign forces might withdraw in return for the Taliban security guarantees.
The two foes are hammering out a deal that could see foreign forces leaveAfghanistan in return for a ceasefire, talks between the government and theTaliban, and a guarantee the country will not be used as a safe haven forterror groups.
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The talks follow a massive peace summit in Kabul last week where PresidentAshraf Ghani offered the Taliban a ceasefire to begin on the first day ofRamadan, but the insurgents refused.
The Taliban have rebuffed repeated calls to halt fighting over the lastyear as they seek to gain leverage at the negotiating table by pressing thefight on the battlefield.
Last year the Taliban announced a three-day ceasefire at the end of Ramadanafter Ghani declared a unilateral truce for eight days earlier in the month.
It was first formal nationwide ceasefire since the US-led invasion of 2001and saw unprecedented scenes of reconciliation and jubilation across thecountry.
Since then the insurgents have steadfastly refused to talk to Ghani, whothey view as a US puppet, and talks thus far have cut out his government.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s war rages on, with thousands of civilians andfighters being killed each year.
US forces continue to train Afghan partners on the ground and strike theTaliban from the air in a bid to push the war to a political settlement.
Map locating an attack in the Shar-e-Naw area in Kabul. -APP/AFP
