Kabul, Dec. 31, (dpa/GNA) – An explosion in the Afghan capital Kabul struck a car carrying an employee from the president’s office, an official said on Thursday.
A magnetic bomb was attached to the car of Jawid Wali, who is deputy director of the advisory affairs department.
Wali was “critically wounded” and his driver died, the head of the administrative office of the president, Fazel Fazly, said.
In the meantime, a roadside bomb hit a vehicle belonging to security forces in eastern Nangarhar province, a local official said.
A civilian who was driving a three-wheel motorcycle was killed and two soldiers were wounded in the blast in Jalalabad city, the official added.
Bomb explosions and targeted killings have become a new normal in Afghanistan in recent months.
In addition to government employees, the assassination of public figures, such as civil society activists and journalists, has also been on the rise.
The militants in Afghanistan have carried out more than 18,000 terrorist attacks over the past year, the director of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency Ahmad Zia Saraj said on Thursday.
The official claimed that the Taliban have focused on targeted killings following a peace deal with the United States in Qatar.
The US-Taliban deal signed in February paves the way for the withdrawal of all international forces from Afghanistan within 14-months. In return, the Taliban pledged to hold peace talks with the government in Kabul and renounce terrorism.
GNA