A Taliban suicide attack near the defence ministry in Kabul on Saturday killed nine and injured 13 others, in what was he second blast of the day.
The first attack, in Asadabad near the governor’s compound in the eastern province of Kunar, killed at least 14 people and wounded 41 others, said Wahidullah Kalimzai, the province’s governor.
Hours later, a militant blew himself outside the defence ministry killing nine others. The Taliban were responsible for the Kabul attack, said a spokesman for the insurgents, Zabihullah Mujahid.
Taliban insurgents regularly hit government, military and police targets as part of their campaign to overthrow the Western-backed administration of President Ashraf Ghani.
The blasts come amid fresh efforts by Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the US to restart talks aimed at ending the Taliban’s long and bloody insurgency in Afghanistan.
Image: Afghan National Army soldiers arrive at the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. A loud explosion rocked the Afghan capital Kabul near the defence ministry on Saturday, hours after a suicide bomber killed at least 11 people in the eastern province of Kunar. Photograph: Mohammad Ismail/Reuters
