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Suicide blast hits EU vehicle in Kabul, passer-by killed

05 January 2015, 12:51 CET
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(KABUL) - A Taliban suicide bomb hit a European Union police vehicle in Kabul on Monday, killing at least one passer-by but not wounding any passengers, officials said, days after the NATO combat mission ended in Afghanistan.

The blast, which was heard across the city, was the first major attack since the New Year when US-led NATO forces downgraded from a combat mission to support and training duties helping the Afghan army and police.

The European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL) works to improve the country's civilian police force, one of the many efforts to try to boost security as international troops withdraw.

"A EUPOL vehicle was involved in a vehicle-borne suicide attack whilst it was travelling east on the Jalalabad Road in Kabul," the mission said in a statement.

"The vehicle's occupants were uninjured."

"Six civilians were wounded, one later died of his wounds in hospital," Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanakzai told AFP.

The Taliban, who have waged an insurgency against the international intervention in Afghanistan since 2001, claimed responsibility for the blast via a recognised Twitter account.

EUPOL was established in 2007 and has 240 international staff and 187 local staff in Afghanistan.

Kabul's Jalalabad Road, where many military bases, security facilities and foreign compounds are housed, has been hit by regular suicide blasts over the last year.

In November, a blast on the road killed a British bodyguard and an Afghan employee as well as injuring at least 30 passers-by.

A NATO convoy was also targeted on the same stretch of road in October.

The Taliban have claimed the end of NATO's combat mission marked the defeat of US-led forces, vowing that no peace talks can happen before all foreign troops leave the country.

About 17,000 foreign soldiers, most of them from the US, will still be deployed in Afghanistan this year.

But US troop numbers are set to halve within 12 months and fall to almost nothing in two years.

President Ashraf Ghani and US military leaders have been pushing President Barack Obama to extend US involvement.

"There should be willingness to reexamine (the) deadline," Ghani told the CBS news channel in an interview broadcast Sunday.

Ghani has struggled to form an administration since emerging as leader of the "unity government" after an election marred by fraud.

He will mark 100 days in power on Tuesday, but has yet to name any new ministers.

According to the United Nations, civilian casualties hit a new high in Afghanistan last year with about 10,000 non-combatants killed or wounded -- 75 percent of them by the Taliban.


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