From the Website of CNN NEWS
links: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/08/asia/afghanistan-violence/
U.S. service member among more than 50 killed in Afghanistan attacks
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN)More
than 50 people -- including 27 students at a police academy and one
U.S. service member -- were killed in three separate attacks in
Afghanistan on Friday, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.
The
American was killed when a NATO coalition base in the capital city,
Kabul, was attacked, a defense official told CNN. Another official told
CNN's Barbara Starr that nearly 20 people of varying nationalities were
wounded.
The attack on the coalition base, Camp Integrity, took
place at 10:15 p.m., beginning with an explosion from a suspected
suicide bomber followed by insurgents with small arms. The base houses
U.S. and coalition troops that help train Afghan forces.
There are approximately 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Attack on U.S. military base in Afghanistan 01:26
Taliban
spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the group was responsible for the
attack on the NATO base and for a suicide bombing at that took place at
the National Police Academy earlier in the day.
The
suicide bomber ignited his explosives at the police academy's front
gate at around 7 p.m. local time, according to Ebadullah Karimi, a
spokesman for the Kabul Police Chief. That's where students had queued
to enter the training facility, said an Afghan police official in the
police hospital who didn't want to be named.
Authorities said 27 students were killed and 26 people were wounded in that attack.
The incidents at Camp Integrity and the National Police Academy came hours after another explosion in Kabul.
At
around 1 a.m. local time, a truck detonated on a main road, killing 15
people and wounding 240, said Sayed Zafar Hashemi, a deputy spokesman
for President Ashraf Ghani.
The ensuing explosion destroyed residential areas and businesses, Police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said.
Among those injured were 47 women and 30 children, Hashemi said.
Authorities were investigating the truck blast. There were no claims of responsibility late Friday.
From
January 1 to Friday, 282 people have been killed and 1,241 have been
injured in attacks launched by "anti-government elements" in
Afghanistan, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan (UNAMA). The UNAMA says that's nearly double the amount of
death and injuries compared to the same period last year.
The U.S. State Department and UNAMA Saturday condemned the attacks.
National
Security Adviser Susan Rice called President Ghani on Saturday to
"express the deepest condolences of the American people" on Afghan
deaths in the attacks, and Ghani in turn extended condolences for the
U.S. service member's death, according to a statement from the White
House.
Taliban's new leadership
The attacks come just days after the Taliban announced the death of the man who is credited with creating the group, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and named his replacement, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour.
His
death has thrown the already-fragile peace talks between the Sunni
Islamists and the Afghan government into flux; a second round of talks
was slated to take place in Islamabad on July 31 but was postponed after
the Taliban confirmed Omar's death.
One analyst told CNN that Mansour's rise may bode poorly for the peace talks.
"People
should perhaps reassess the line which has been put about that he was
leading the movement towards peace," Michael Semple, a professor at the
Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice at
Queens University Belfast, told CNN.
"He is the one who has presided over the movement during a period of
escalation of the violence. Actions speak louder than words."
Semple's assertion appears to be backed up by an audio tape that was recently released and purports to be from Mansour.
In the message, the Taliban's new leader denied that the group is attempting to work toward a peace process.
"When
we hear about different processes including the peace process, they are
all the propaganda campaigns by the enemy," the message says. "They are
spreading their propaganda by spending money, through media and some
scholars to only weaken our jihad, but we will not pay attention to any
of those including the peace process. We will continue our jihad and we
will fight until we bring an Islamic rule in the country."
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4 killed in blast near entrance to Kabul airport
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