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News ID: 72642
Publish Date : 13 November 2019 - 21:18

Kabul Car Bomb Kills 12, Including Kids

KABUL (Dispatches) – A car bombing in Kabul during morning rush hour on Wednesday targeted a private security company's convoy with officials saying 12 people were killed, including children.
The attack also wounded 20 people, including four of the company's foreign staff, but their nationalities were not released. Reports in the immediate aftermath of the attack said seven died but a new death toll was later released.
The explosion occurred in the Qasaba area in the Afghan capital. The GardaWorld security company - based in Montreal, Canada - was the apparent target, according to Nasrat Rahimi, an interior ministry spokesman.
A vehicle belonging to the security company and two private cars were damaged in the attack, Rahimi added.
Ambulance sirens were heard shortly after the car bomb went off and a large plume of smoke rose from the area - scenes all too familiar for Kabul and other cities and towns across Afghanistan.
Among those killed were 12-year-old Dunya and her 7-year old brother who were on their way to school.
The two children were walking with their father when the car-bomb detonated. The father, who was severely wounded and lost a leg and a hand, was in hospital, according to reports on social media.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Taliban and Daesh are active in the capital and have previously claimed attacks in Kabul.
The Taliban control or hold sway over half of Afghanistan, staging near-daily attacks that target Afghan forces and government officials but also kill scores of civilians.
In other violence, at least four Afghan army soldiers were killed on Monday night during an air strike by U.S. forces in eastern Logar province, said Anwar Khan Ishaqzai, the provincial governor. Six other troops were wounded in the attack near Puli Alam, the provincial capital.
The air strike came as a gun battle was under way between the army and the Taliban in the area, the governor said, adding an investigation was started into the "friendly fire" strike.
The violence came a day after President Ashraf Ghani announced the government in Kabul would release three high-ranking Taliban prisoners in an apparent prisoner swap for Western hostages who had been kidnapped by the group in 2016.
The three Taliban prisoners include Anas Haqqani, who was seized in 2014 and whose older brother is the deputy Taliban leader and head of the Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate.