Taliban Targeted the US Counterpart NGO in Kabul

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group attacked the organisation because it was involved in “harmful Western activities” inside Afghanistan, without elaborating.

Ariana News Agency-

The Taliban attacked the offices of an international non-government organisation (NGO) in the Afghanistan capital on Wednesday, setting off a huge explosion and battling Afghan security forces in an assault that wounded at least nine people, officials said.

Nusrat Rahimi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior Affairs, said the target of the attack was Counterpart International, an NGO headquartered in the United States that is operating in Afghanistan since 2005.

The organisation’s office building is located near the attorney general’s office in Shahr-e-Naw area in the centre of Kabul city.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group attacked the organisation because it was involved in “harmful Western activities” inside Afghanistan, without elaborating.

The blast comes just over two weeks after armed men targeted the communications ministry in central Kabul, killing at least seven people. It was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) group.

Representatives of the US and the Taliban continue negotiations in Qatar aimed at bringing an end to the nearly 18-year-long conflict.

The talks follow a peace summit in Kabul last week where President Ashraf Ghani offered a ceasefire from the first day of Ramadan, which was refused by the Taliban.