Move FM Global News

KABUL, Afghanistan – There have been massive casualties as yet another car bomb has exploded in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

At least 18 people have been klilled and another 145 injured at a police recruitment center in the western part of the city.

The Taliban, which is currently engaged with the United States in talks on bringing the 18-year old war to an end, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Those who died in the bombing are believed to have been police officers, some of them recruits, while the majority of the injured were civilians, including women and children.

The Taliban said in its statement it had killed a large number of police officers and soldiers, which the group said it targeted.

The attack was confirmed by a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Public Health Ministry.

Women and children were among the victims, Nusrat Rahimi of the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

The attack occurred around 9:00am Wednesday, Rahimi said. The car was stopped at a checkpoint, and at this point the bomb was detonated.

“A large number of soldiers and police were killed or wounded,” the Taliban statement said.

The carnage comes as both the U.S. and Afghanistan say progress is being made in talks, however this is a standard phrase whenever any ceasfire talks are being undertaken.

U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad even went so far as to say “excellent progress” has been made in Doha, the Qatar capital, where talks resumed on the weekend. Khalilzad visted Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday prior to arriving in Doha on Saturday for the negotiations.

The Taliban is looking for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghan lands while the U.S. wants assurances extremist groups will not be able to set up shop in the country, as Osma bin Laden’s al-Qaeda did in the late 1990s.

According to a BBC report, the Taliban now controls more territory that at an any other time since it ruled the country, prior to the U.S. invasion in 2001.

The Taliban is yet to resume talks with the Afghan government but any agreement between the two will almost certainly see the Taliban again taking part in the government of the country.

This will complete the circle, and Afghanistan will be back where it started from, except for all of the death and destruction of the past 18 years which will apear to have been for nothing.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia).