Pakistan strongly condemns Kabul terrorist attack
The powerful truck bombing left at least 28 people dead and 327 injured.
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk / AFP) - Pakistan strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Kabul today (Tuesday) in which a number of precious lives have been lost and hundreds are injured.
"We extend our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to those who have lost their loved ones and pray for an early recovery of the injured," the Foreign office said in a statement.
"The Government of Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and expresses solidarity with the Government and brotherly people of Afghanistan in their hour of grief and struggle against terrorism."
The powerful truck bombing followed by a fierce firefight left at least 28 people dead and 327 others wounded, Afghan officials said, a week after the insurgents launched their annual spring offensive.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack near government offices, which sent clouds of acrid smoke billowing in the sky and rattled windows several kilometres (miles) away.
The brazen assault in a densely packed neighbourhood marks the first major Taliban attack in the Afghan capital since the insurgents announced the start of this year’s fighting season.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed their fighters had managed to enter the offices of the National Directorate of Security, the main spy agency.
Afghan officials dismissed those claims, saying that the target of the attack was a government office responsible for providing security to government VIPs.
The Taliban on Tuesday last week announced the start of their "spring offensive" even as the government in Kabul seeks to bring them back to the negotiating table to end the drawn-out conflict.
The Taliban warned they would "employ large-scale attacks on enemy positions across the country" during the offensive dubbed Operation Omari in honour of the movement’s late founder Mullah Omar, whose death was announced last year.
The insurgents began the fighting season last week by targeting the northern city of Kunduz, which they briefly captured last year in a stunning setback for Afghan forces.
But officials said Afghan security forces drove Taliban fighters back from the city on Friday.
The annual spring offensive normally marks the start of the "fighting season", though this past winter the lull was shorter and rebels continued to battle government forces, albeit with less intensity.
The Taliban’s resurgence has raised serious questions about Afghan forces’ capacity to hold their own. An estimated 5,500 troops were killed last year, the worst-ever toll.
Peace talks which began last summer were abruptly halted after it was revealed that Taliban leader Mullah Omar had been dead for two years, a disclosure which sparked infighting in the insurgents’ ranks.
A four-country group comprising Afghanistan, the United States, China and Pakistan has been holding meetings since January aimed at jump-starting negotiations, though their efforts have so far been in vain.
