The latest attack in the Taliban’s offensive occurred Monday, when a Taliban jihadi carried out a suicide auto bombing outside of the entrance to Kabul global airport.
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The wave of violence appeared triggered by a power struggle within the Taliban after the insurgents last week confirmed the 2013 death of their founder, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and named a new leader who immediately vowed to continue the group’s campaign to bring sharia law to Afghanistan.
At least four people were killed and 15 others including women and children injured in a suicide blast near the entrance of worldwide airport in Kabul on Monday.
Wahidullah Mayar, the spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, said at least seven civilians were wounded in the blast.
Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said five people had died in the attack and 16 were wounded. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for two of Friday’s multiple deadly attacks, though officials indicated they believed the Taliban were also behind the truck bomb explosion.
Chief Executive of Afghanistan Dr Abdullah Abdullah has said that Pakistan does not cooperate in anti-terrorism campaign with his country over the past 10 months.
The attack and two massive bombings in the city earlier in the day call into question Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s ability to tamp down the violent insurgency that is roiling the country despite his administration’s focus on making peace with the Taliban.
Later Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up among cadets gathered outside a police academy, leaving 28 dead.
An AFP photographer saw pieces of charred flesh littered around the checkpoint, where passengers undergo the first round of body checks before entering the airport.
It has been Afghanistan’s long-held position that the leaders of the Afghan Taliban are based in Pakistan where they are protected, a charge Islamabad has always denied.
The statement added that that Pakistan remains committed to supporting and facilitating an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
Conflict between the Western-backed government and the Taliban has intensified this year, with civilians and Afghan security forces taking the brunt after the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation combat mission ended in 2014. “We want this commitment to be honoured”, the president said.
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The attack comes amid an increase in violence in Afghanistan, just weeks after Pakistani-brokered talks between the Afghan government and Taliban representatives were called off following confirmation of the death of longtime Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. The rival Islamic extremist group, which already controls about a third of Syria and Iraq with affiliates in Egypt and Libya, has established a small foothold in Afghanistan and is actively recruiting disillusioned Taliban fighters.
