Taliban fighters killed at least eight security personnel and six civilians in a car bomb attack in central Afghanistan that also wounded nearly 200 people - including dozens of children at a nearby school.

The suicide attack in Ghazni province on Sunday came as an all-Afghan peace conference, which includes the Taliban, began in Qatar in an effort to end years of violence and build trust between Afghan civilians and the armed group.

Afghan officials said the bomb targeted the country's main intelligence unit, National Directorate of Security (NDS).

Health officials in Ghazni said 13 adults, including eight NDS members, and a child were killed. At least 60 children attending classes in a private school near the blast site were among the 180 people wounded.

"The casualty figures may rise as this is not the last report of those injured in the powerful blast," said Zaher Shah Nekmal, a health director in Ghazni province.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

"Dozens of NDS officers were killed or wounded," the group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

The blast in a crowded area of Ghazni city was the latest in a wave of near-daily attacks by the Taliban that now holds sway over about half of Afghanistan and continues to intensify attacks on Afghan forces despite increased US efforts towards a peace agreement to end the 18-year war.

Aid group Save the Children denounced the attack.

"This is simply unacceptable and we urge all armed groups in Afghanistan to think of future generations and stop the killing and maiming of innocent children," said its country director Onno van Manen in a statement.

"Children did not ask for this war. They should not be paying the ultimate price for it. It's time to stop the war on children."

Peace talks

The Taliban, which has repeatedly refused to negotiate with the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani, agreed to join the intra-Afghan summit in the Qatari capital, Doha, on the condition that those there would attend in a personal capacity.

190706134720995

About 60 high-profile Afghan figures and activists were in Doha to meet the Taliban representatives during the two-day conference, a meeting arranged by German and Qatari officials with the support of US negotiators.

US-Taliban peace talks in Doha were paused for two days to allow the intra-Afghan summit to take place. US and Taliban officials will reconvene on Tuesday.

The warring sides started a seventh round of peace talks last week, which US special envoy for peace in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad described on Twitter on Saturday as the most productive session to date.

He said substantive progress had been made on all four parts of a peace deal: counterterrorism assurances, withdrawal of troops, participation in intra-Afghan negotiations, and a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.

Military conflict and attacks on civilians have intensified even as the diplomatic process gains momentum, triggering tremendous unease among some Afghans about the significance of holding peace talks with the Taliban.

The armed group took responsibility for detonating a car bomb at the start of a lengthy gun battle outside a defence ministry compound in the capital, Kabul, last week. Sixteen people were killed and more than 100 civilians, including 51 children, were wounded in that attack. </s> Taliban Islamist fighters killed at least eight Afghan security force members and four civilians, as well as wounding more than 50 civilians, by blowing up a car bomb in central Ghazni province on Sunday, government officials and the Taliban said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for detonating the bomb near the National Directorate of Security (NDS) compound in Ghazni city during Sunday morning’s rush hour. “Dozens of NDS officers were killed or wounded,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Arif Noori, a provincial government spokesman in Ghazni, confirmed eight members of the NDS and four civilians died in the blast, with more than 50 civilians injured. “Many injured people were being rushed to the hospital,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.

The blast in a crowded area of Ghazni city was the latest in a wave of near-daily attacks by the Taliban, who now hold sway over about half of Afghanistan and continue to intensify attacks on Afghan forces despite increased efforts towards a peace agreement to end the 18-year war. </s> Kabul: At least 12 people were killed and 179 others injured on Sunday in a suicide car bombing in Afghanistan`s Ghazni city. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

"The attack took place in the morning at around 8.30 a.m. near a local base of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Ghazni city," Arif Noori, a spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province, told Efe news.

The victims comprised eight security personnel and four civilians, Noori said. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

"A key base of the National Directorate of Security in Ghazni city was targeted by a martyrdom-seeking attacker using a VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device).

"According to our initial information, the base was completely destroyed and tens of NDS forces and workers were killed and injured," Mujahid added.

The NDS said that the attack took place at a security check-post located at the first entrance of one of its facilities in Ghazni.

"Civilians living in nearby houses suffered the most," the NDS said, adding that "the site of the attack has now been cordoned off by the security forces."

This attack occurred on the same day that a round of intra-Afghan peace talks commenced in Qatar between the insurgents and a delegation including members of the Kabul government taking part in an unofficial and personal capacity.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack in a statement, labelling it a "crime against humanity" that proved them to be the enemy of the people.

"By conducting this terrorist attack, the Taliban showed a paradox in what they are saying and what they are doing. While they are holding talks in Qatar, every day in Afghanistan they are shedding more blood of innocent civilians," Ghani said.

Meanwhile, the Taliban are also holding talks with the US in Qatar. The insurgents have expressed their satisfaction with the advances made in the negotiations, focused on the withdrawal of US troops and the Taliban`s promise that no terror group will attack another country while based on Afghan soil.

However, the ongoing talks have not prevented the Taliban from carrying out brutal attacks such as a suicide bombing against a Defence Ministry facility in Kabul on July 1 that killed 11 people and left 65 injured. </s> A car bomb targeted an office of Afghanistan’s Intelligence Directorate (NDS) in Ghazni city, left at least 12 dead.

A massive suicide car bombing on Sunday killed at least 12 people and injured 50 others in Afghanistan's restive central Ghazni province, officials and the local media confirmed.

Amid Afghan peace talks in Qatar, the Taliban took responsibility for the deadly assault. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said on social media that a compound of the Afghan secret service, NDS, was the target for this Sunday morning assault in the provincial capital, which briefly fell to the rebels last year.

Confirming the death toll, Baz Mohammad, head of the public hospital in Ghazni, told Anadolu Agency that civilian and security forces are among the victims.

According to local Azadi Radio, a number of schoolchildren also died. </s> The Taliban carried out a devastating suicide car bombing in central Afghanistan Sunday that killed 12 people and wounded over 150 others, said Afghan officials.

The attack came as an all-Afghan peace conference, which includes the Taliban, were underway Sunday in Doha in an effort to end to the country’s relentless wars.

A provincial council member, Hasan Raza Yousafi, said the car bomb ripped through central 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, said the provincial health department chief, Zahir Shah Nekmal. He said most of the injured 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 killed tens of intelligence employees. The Taliban often exaggerate such claims.

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

He said Washington’s “aspiration” is to have that framework in place by Sept. 1 and ahead of the Afghan presidential election.

Khalilzad, who has been holding direct talks with the Taliban for the past six days also in Doha, told a press briefing that included The Associated Press that the discussions were the most productive ever. He will resume talks with the Taliban on Tuesday, he said.

Talks have covered a timeframe for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan, verifiable anti-terror guarantees from the Taliban, intra-Afghan negotiations and an eventual cease-fire. </s> Three explosions struck the Afghan capital on Sunday, including a sticky bomb attached to a bus carrying university students that killed at least one person, Afghan officials said. The bus explosion wounded ten people, including an Afghan reporter, said Nasrat Rahimi, spokesman for the interior ministry. Two roadside bombs were detonated about 20 minutes later, wounding seven more people, including five security forces in the same residential area of western Kabul.

Several houses and shops around the blast sites were damaged, and security forces blocked all roads leading to the site.

Wahidullah Mayar, spokesman for the public health ministry, said at least four women were wounded in the bus bombing an had been taken to hospitals. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but both Taliban and Islamic State militants are active in the capital and have staged attacks in Kabul.

In a separate attack late Saturday in eastern Ghazni province, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a stolen Humvee packed with explosives inside a police reserve unit compound, killing at least seven police personnel, said Nasr Ahmad Faqeri, head of Ghazni’s provincial council. He added that eight other police were wounded in the attack on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Ghazni city.The suicide bomber was able to enter the compound using a stolen Humvee,

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid took responsibility for the attack in Ghazni. In recent days, Kabul has witnessed a wave of attacks. A Taliban suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. convoy on Friday in an eastern neighborhood, killing four Afghan civilians wounding three others, as well as lightly wounding four American forces. On Thursday, six people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an Afghan army academy and training center.

Attacks by the Taliban have continued unabated despite peace talks with the United States as well as a fresh round of talks with Afghan notables last week in the Russian capital, Moscow. The Taliban have rejected repeated demands for a cease fire, saying the fighting will continue until U.S. and NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan. </s> Afghan officials say at least three people have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide car bombing in the city of Ghazni.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the July 7 attack that comes as representatives of the militant group were expected to take part in a two-day all-Afghan conference in the Qatari capital, Doha.

The attack in Ghazni targeted an office of the National Directorate of Security, but many of the victims were students attending a nearby school, said Hasan Raza Yousafi, a provincial council member.

It’s the second attack in Ghazni in two days. At least two people were killed and some 20 others were wounded in a bomb blast inside the Mohammadiya mosque in Ghazni’s Khak-e-Ghariban area of July 6.

The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for that attack.

The conference in Doha aims at helping find an end to Afghanistan’s ongoing military conflict.

Based on reporting by AP, tolonews.com, and Reuters </s> An Afghan policeman keeps watch at the site of a blast near Kabul University in Kabul, Afghanistan July 19, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

KABUL (Reuters) - A powerful bomb blast outside the gates of Kabul University in the Afghan capital on Friday killed at least eight people and wounded 33, as students and lawyers waited to take an examination, officials said.

Taliban militants are carrying out almost daily attacks, despite reported progress in efforts by the United States to broker an end to Afghanistan’s nearly 18-year war.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday’s blast. On Thursday Taliban insurgents set off two car bombs outside police headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar, killing at least 12 and wounding more than 80.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he was not aware of any Taliban involvement in Friday’s attack.

Health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said there were students among the 33 injured taken to hospital after the blast, which a student at the university campus said occurred while some were waiting to take a law exam.

An eyewitness and an interior ministry official said a vehicle caught fire after a bomb stuck to its underside exploded.

“The blast happened when hundreds of students were entering the campus. We were scheduled to appear for the law exam but the blast shook all of us,” said Karima Wardak, a student at the Kabul University.

A police team defused a second bomb placed near the explosion site, Kabul police spokesman Faramarz Firdaws said.

Also on Friday, a roadside mine killed five people who were riding in a car in central Ghazni province. </s> Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) At least six people were killed, including two Afghan soldiers, when a car bomb exploded Saturday in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, an Afghan official said.

The explosive-laden vehicle targeted an Afghan National Army base in Nadali District, Mohammad Radmanish, deputy spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, told CNN. A woman was among the civilians killed, he said.

JUST WATCHED Dozens killed in Kabul suicide blast Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Dozens killed in Kabul suicide blast 01:35

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a series to hit the country since the start of the year.

A Taliban attack in Afghanistan's southeastern Ghazni province earlier this month claimed 14 lives , including that of a district governor.

Read More
Fourteen people are killed and nearly 200 are injured in a suicide car bombing by the Taliban in Ghazni, Afghanistan.