At least eight people killed in car bombings in Afghanistan

Authorities said on Saturday that at least eight people were killed and 47 were injured in a powerful car bombing in Afghanistan’s western Herat province.

Hours later, the United Nations condemned a “dangerous” increase in attacks targeting civilians.

Provincial Hospital spokesman Rafiq Sharzai said 14 houses were destroyed in the blast late Friday, as several injured were in critical condition.

Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said that 11 of the dead and injured were Afghan security forces personnel while the rest were civilians, including women and children.

No one immediately claimed responsibility.

Within hours of the attack, the UN Security Council, in a press briefing in New York, condemned the “alarming” increase in attacks in Afghanistan, even as civilians in re-negotiated talks on Qatar by the Taliban and the Afghan government Attacks increased in Afghanistan to target. .

The council said, “These heinous attacks have targeted civil servants, the judiciary, the media, health care and humanitarian activists, including women in key positions, who protect and promote human rights and ethnic and religious minorities.” She gives. “

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for many of the targeted killings while the Taliban and the government have blamed each other for sabotage attempts to reach a peace deal.

The slow pace of negotiations and the escalating violence have prompted the United States to engage with a peace resolution, which was delivered last weekend.

The two sides expect to review and revise the eight-page plan, which the US proposes to hold in Turkey for weeks, when Washington hopes to see an agreement.

The US meanwhile is reviewing the Trump administration’s peace deal signed with the Taliban, which calls for the final withdrawal of the remaining 2,500 US troops from Afghanistan by May 1.

The growing consensus is for a delay, but in a letter to Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani last week sternly pressuring progress to make peace with the Taliban, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said All options including return are still on the table.

The post-war peace deal proposed by the US introduces Afghanistan as a “peace government” for elections and constitutional reforms. It also calls for the protection of equal rights for women and minorities.

The UN Security Council called for “full, equal and meaningful participation of women” and a swift step toward reduction of violence.