Bombings, assaults kill at least 42 in Afghan capital

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Reuters

A wave of attacks on Afghan police, army and NATO installations in Kabul killed at least 42 people and wounded hundreds, dashing hope that Taliban insurgents might be weakened by a leadership struggle after news of their longtime leader's death.

The attacks on Friday, which included a massive truck bomb in a heavily populated civilian area and a suicide attack on a police academy, were some of the most serious in months and the first in Kabul since the Taliban named a new leader last week.

They represent another blow to a tentative peace process that held its first meeting in July but was suspended last week.

Kabul has frequently been targeted by the Taliban and other insurgent groups seeking to destabilise the fragile government of President Ashraf Ghani although the scale of the latest attacks was unusually large.


Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/08/08/afghanistan-blast-idINKCN0QB2GS20150808

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. The Taliban announces it is still around.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. U.S. service member among more than 50 killed in Afghanistan attacks

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.

Separately, U.S. Army Col. Brian Triebus said in a statement that eight Afghan civilian contractors and four insurgents were also killed in that incident. Triebus also said a coalition service member was killed, but he did not give the nationality of that person.

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.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/08/asia/afghanistan-violence/

Kabul: death toll rises in deadliest 24 hours Afghan capital has seen in years

A wave of attacks in Kabul has killed more than 40 people, including a Nato soldier, in the deadliest 24 hours in the Afghan capital in years.

Most of the deceased were civilians or young police cadets, while Nato confirmed one international service member was among the dead.

The deadliest attack occurred on Friday when a Taliban suicide bomber, dressed in police uniform, detonated an explosives vest outside the gates of a police academy in the middle of a crowd of recruits waiting to return after the weekend.

A few hours later, another two explosions went off in the Qasaba neighbourhood north of the airport, followed by sporadic gunfire, when insurgents tried to storm a US special operations base known as Camp Integrity. One service member was killed, as were eight civilian contractors and two insurgents, according to Col Brian Tribus, a spokesman for international forces in Afghanistan.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/08/afghanistan-35-killed-in-deadliest-24-hours-capital-kabul-has-seen-in-years