Students and security staff among 12 dead in Taliban suicide car bombing

Twelve people have been killed and more than 150 injured in a suicide car bombing carried out by the Taliban in Afghanistan, officials have said.

The attack on Sunday came as an all-Afghan peace conference, which included the Taliban, took place in Doha, Qatar, in an effort to end the country’s wars.

A provincial council member, Hasan Raza Yousafi, said the car bomb had exploded near an intelligence department compound in Ghazni, the capital of the province of the same name.

The dead included eight security personnel, he said.

Many of the wounded were students of a nearby high school, provincial health department chief Zahir Shah Nekmal said.

He added that most of the injured had suffered cuts and abrasions from broken glass.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed responsibility for the suicide attack saying the target was the intelligence service’s compound in Ghazni.

He said the bombing had killed tens of intelligence employees.

The Taliban often exaggerates such claims to create more fear.

Meanwhile, US Peace Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad hailed the intra-Afghan talks in Doha as a good first step towards substantive negotiations between Afghans on a framework for the country’s future.

He said Washington’s ‘aspiration’ was to have that framework in place by September 1 and ahead of the Afghan presidential election.

Mr Khalilzad, who has been holding direct talks with the Taliban for the past six days also in Doha, told a press briefing on Saturday that the discussions had been the most productive yet.

He would resume talks with the Taliban on Tuesday, he said.

Talks have covered a time frame for the withdrawal of US and Nato troops from Afghanistan, verifiable anti-terror guarantees from the Taliban, intra-Afghan negotiations and an eventual ceasefire.