By Zabihullah Tamanna
KABUL, Afghanistan
At least three Afghan National Army officers have been killed and eight others were wounded early Thursday morning following a suicide bomb attack on a bus carrying army officers in the capital, Afghan officials said.
“As a result of a suicide attack this morning at 6:40 am local time on the Afghan National Army bus in Kabul, at least three Afghan national officers have been killed and eight others were injured. The wounded officers were immediately evacuated to hospital for further treatment,” Defense Ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said.
Azimi further added that the suicide bomber was on foot and had detonated his explosive near the army bus in the Dough Abad area, the ninth district of the capital Kabul.
“The Ministry of defense strongly condemns the cowardly actions of the Taliban and condoles with the family of the deceased officers,” he added.
The Taliban said they carried out the attack, which comes a day after two suicide car bombers targeted army buses in the capital Kabul on Wednesday morning killing nine officers and wounding about 20 others.
“A Taliban mujahid carried out the suicide attack, and we said the responses to Afghan-American agreement will continue,” Taliban purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
The explosions came after the Afghan government signed a long term bilateral security agreement with United States and NATO on Tuesday which was slammed by Taliban militants.
Taliban militants opposed the signing of security deal between Afghanistan and the United States and warned of an intensification of the conflict against the Afghan government. The deal, known as a bilateral security agreement will allow 9,800 American and at least 2,000 NATO troops to remain in Afghanistan after the international combat mission formally ends on Dec. 31, most of them will help train and assist the struggling Afghan security forces although some American special operations forces will remain to conduct counter terrorism missions.
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