According to the Daily Mail, two women were among the dead while at least 25 people were also injured in the blast.
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The Taliban are now firmly on the offensive across the county despite renewed efforts to start a peace process aimed at ending the war.
A vehicle carrying employees of popular Afghan TV channel TOLO was the target of a deadly bombing in downtown Kabul Wednesday, officials and sources within the media organisation told AFP.
No group has claimed responsibility yet for the attack.
Separately yesterday, the USA government issued a warning that it had received reports militants were planning to attack a hotel or guesthouse frequented by foreigners in Kabul. In October, CPJ documented how a Taliban website threatened journalists associated with Tolo TV and the Afghan broadcaster 1TV with “elimination”.
“Unfortunately, in the terrorist attack today in Darulaman Road in Kabul, we lost 7 staff members”, Tolo TV said on its Twitter account. “If they do not stop their evil activities this will not be the last attack on them”, a Taliban spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
The carnage highlights the Taliban’s growing campaign of violence across Afghanistan despite an worldwide push to jumpstart peace talks with the Islamist group.
The Taliban on Thursday said it is not specifically targeting media as part of a widening insurgency, but warned organizations they should not align themselves with Tolo. “So long as insurgents falsely categorize journalists as ‘military targets, ‘ media freedom in Afghanistan is in peril”.
The Taliban has stepped up attacks on government and foreign targets in Afghanistan this winter, when fighting usually abates, underscoring a worsening security situation.
(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul). Afghan security forces inspect the site of a suicide attack near the Russian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. Tolo is among Afghanistan’s most credible media outlets and was the first 24-hour news station in the country.
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The Mission also reiterated that worldwide humanitarian law, which applies to all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan, prohibits attacks against civilians at any time and in any place.
