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Large explosion near Kabul airport, casualties feared

The vehicle was packed with homemade explosives and detonated near the gathering, said Hayatullah Amiri, the Khanabad district governor.

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29 people were killed in the bombing, including 25 members of armed groups and four civilians.

At least four people were killed and 17 others injured on Monday when a suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint near the entrance to Kabul’s worldwide airport, the media reported.

He said 19 others were wounded, including 15 civilians. The American was killed when a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation coalition base in Kabul was attacked, a defence official said.

In a statement issued following the three attacks carried out in Kabul on Friday, UNAMA repeated its call for anti-Government elements, including the Taliban, to cease the use of complex and suicide attacks in civilian-populated areas.

A large explosion has rocked the Afghan capital, Kabul. Earlier, the prime minister’s special assistant for foreign affairs, Tariq Fatemi, had said that Afghanistan and Pakistan can take joint action against the Taliban groups who refuse to participate in the reconciliation process.

President Barack Obama’s national security advisor, Susan Rice, spoke Saturday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani about the attacks, offered US condolences for the dozens who were killed and hundreds wounded, and expressed US support for the Afghan government in its fight against terrorism. The first face-to-face talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban took place last month in the Pakistani hill town of Murree, aimed at ending the 14-year insurgency. The second round scheduled to be held in Pakistan on July 31 was postponed after the Taliban confirmed the death of their chief Mullah Omar.

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Meanwhile, experts say insurgents are stepping up attacks as Mansour seeks to drive attention away from internal rifts over his leadership.

The suicide attack appeared to be aimed at two armoured cars