Bomb Blasts: 72 Killed, Several Others Injured (Photos/Video)

An attack by suspected Taliban members has killed at least 21 people in northern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday, August 9, after a wave of lethal bombings in the capital as the insurgency escalates following a bitter power transition.

Several attacks over a few days have left scores dead and dozens more injured. Photo: AFP

According to the Afghan interior ministry, all those killed Saturday evening in the Khanabad district of Kunduz province were civilians, although local officials called them anti-Taliban militiamen.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes after a barrage of bombings in Kabul killed at least 51 people on Friday, August 7,  in what has been tagged the deadliest day for the capital in years.

A victim of bomb attack in Afganistan

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The interior ministry said: “The incident took place (when) a suicide bomber detonated his suicide vest in Khanabad district,” strongly condemning the “heinous act”.

“The suicide attack… resulted in martyrdom of 21 civilians and wounding of 10 others.”

Afghan civil society members put up posters against Pakistan in the ruins of a destroyed market after the blast of a truck bomb during a vigil for victims of Friday’s multiple attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for two of Friday’s multiple deadly attacks, though officials indicated they believed the Taliban were also behind the truck bomb explosion. AP/PTI

However, Abdul Wadood Wahidi, a spokesman for the governor of Kunduz, said 22 militiamen — including four of their commanders — were killed by an improvised explosive device.

Kunduz is said to be a volatile province where the Taliban recently came close to overrunning, in what analysts define as the most alarming threat to any provincial capital since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

With Afghan forces increasingly battling the militants on their own, the insurgency has been rapidly spreading across the north from its traditional southern and eastern strongholds.

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It is recalled that the US-led NATO forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan in December last year, however, a 13,000-strong residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

According to Tribune India, the bombings in Kabul on Friday, August 7  struck near an army complex, a police academy and a US special forces base, killing at least 51 people, officials said.

They were the first major attacks since Mullah Akhtar Mansour was named as the new Taliban chief last week in an acrimonious power transition after the insurgents confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar.

Reports have it that the wave of violence has underscored Afghanistan’s volatile security situation amid a faltering peace process and the potency of the Taliban insurgency, despite it being riven by growing internal divisions.

Experts say the growing number of attacks is an attempt  by Mullah Mansour to boost his image among Taliban cadres and drive attention away from internal rifts over his leadership.

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A police spokesman in Kunduz, Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, also identified the victims of Saturday’s bombing as armed militiamen.

Kabul is increasingly relying on informal militias as a bulwark against the insurgents, with Afghan forces suffering record casualties as foreign troops pull back. A gambit observers say is akin to fighting fire with fire.

The mobilisation of militias is a complete turn around from previous government efforts to disarm these groups, blamed for devastating Afghanistan during the civil war in the 1990s and setting the stage for a Taliban takeover.

The move also lays highlights the shortcomings of the multi-billion dollar US-led effort to develop self-reliant Afghan forces, suffering large daily casualties and struggling to rein in an ascendant insurgency on their own as the war expands on multiple fronts.

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