Death toll in Kabul suicide blast rises to 35: Afghan official

Neighbourhood is home to many Shia Hazaras

KABUL: The death toll from a suicide car bomb blast in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Monday rose by more than 10 to at least 35, according to a senior government official.

The Taliban earlier claimed responsibility for the blast in the western part of Kabul. The government official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media about the incident.



Police cordoned off the area, located near the house of the deputy government Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq in a part of the city where many of the mainly Shia Hazara community live. Monday's suicide bombing was yet another example of the unrelenting violence in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, which is battling the Western-backed government and a NATO-led coalition for control of Afghanistan, has launched a wave of attacks around the country in recent days, sparking fighting in more than half a dozen provinces.

"I was in my shop when suddenly I heard a terrible sound and as a result all of my shop windows shattered," said Ali Ahmed, a resident in the area of Monday's blast.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of the militant group in a post on Twitter, saying 37 "intelligence workers" had been killed. The Taliban often exaggerate the scale of attacks against Afghan government and foreign targets. Mujahid said the target of the attack had been two buses that had been under surveillance for two months.



Government security forces said a small bus owned by the Ministry of Mines had been destroyed in the blast. Three civilian vehicles and 15 shops were destroyed or damaged in the blast, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

At least 1,662 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the first half of the year. The latest suicide bombing came two weeks after the Islamic State group claimed an attack on a mosque in the capital that killed at least four people.

Kabul has accounted for at least 20 percent of all civilian casualties this year, including at least 150 people killed in a massive truck bomb attack at the end of May, according to United Nations figures.

On Sunday, dozens of Afghan troops were under siege after Taliban fighters overran a district in northern Faryab province, a spokesperson for the provincial police said. There was also fighting in Baghlan, Badakhshan, and Kunduz provinces in Afghanistan's north, and Kandahar, Helmand, and Uruzgan in the south, according to officials.

The resurgence of violence also coincides with the US administration weighing up its strategic options for Afghanistan, including the possibility of sending more troops to bolster the training and advisory mission already helping Afghan forces.