Daily Times

KABUL: The Taliban claimed responsibility Thursday for a twin suicide attack targeting a convoy of buses transporting Afghan police cadets in Kabul, which Afghanistan’s interior ministry said killed 30 and wounded 58.

The bloodshed, which was condemned as a ‘crime against humanity’ by President Ashraf Ghani, comes little over a week after 14 Nepali security guards who were heading to work at the Canadian embassy were killed in a massive blast that left their minibus spattered with blood. “The convoy of buses transporting newly graduated police was targeted by two suicide attackers in the limits of Kabul province. As a result 30 police were martyred and 58 more injured,” a statement issued by the interior ministry said.

Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the ministry, said the cadets were returning from a training centre in neighbouring Wardak province and were heading to the capital when targeted on Kabul’s outskirts.

One attacker was on foot and the other was in an explosive-packed car, he said.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement.

An AFP reporter said the area had been cordoned off but it appeared that five green police cadet buses had sustained damage, as well as a military Humvee vehicle assigned to escort them. Twisted metal and glass shards littered the scene as security personnel gathered around the wreckage.

President Ghani said the attack demonstrated the Taliban’s weakness on the battlefield, a statement from his office said.