Muslim scum blow themselves up every day. This atrocity for Allah was last week.

New York Times - Suicide Bombing at University Kills 10 as Violence Surges in Afghanistan

Afghan security personnel in front of Kabul University, after a suicide bombing early Friday.

By David Zucchino and Fahim Abed

July 19, 2019

KABUL, Afghanistan — As law students waited outside Kabul University to take fourth-year exams shortly after daybreak on Friday, a suicide bomber drove up and detonated an explosive device, killing 10 people and wounding 33.

The bombing was the latest in an aggressive series of attacks by insurgents in the 10 days since American and Taliban negotiators suspended peace talks in Doha, Qatar, that were aimed at reaching a political settlement and a cease-fire in the 18-year-old war.

The Interior Ministry blamed the Taliban for Friday’s attack, which killed students and a traffic officer. A Taliban spokesman denied that the group was involved in the bombing, although it has claimed responsibility for many recent attacks.

In a burst of violence noteworthy even by Afghan standards, the Taliban have launched a number of sophisticated attacks aimed at government security forces and compounds, in some cases killing and maiming civilians.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said in an interview on Friday that “the enemy’s raids on civilian Afghans and their killing of civilians are forcing us to aggressively target their strong and secured centers, which are in the cities.”

Since the peace talks began last fall, both sides have escalated operations, in part to increase leverage in negotiations. From Tuesday through Thursday alone, the Ministry of Defense claimed to have conducted hundreds of combat operations and dozens of airstrikes, killing more than 200 militants.

But the audacity of the Taliban attacks has been notable since the latest round of peace talks was suspended on July 9. Insurgents killed an American Special Forces soldier in combat on July 13, the Pentagon said.

Smoke rising at the scene of a car bomb blast that targeted police headquarters in Kandahar.

And in the past four days, according to provincial and military officials, the Taliban killed an Afghan Army brigade commander in an insider attack in eastern Afghanistan; assassinated a senior bodyguard of President Ashraf Ghani; and killed up to 35 elite Afghan commandos in a nighttime raid in western Afghanistan, according to local officials who said at least 30 Taliban were also killed.

Haroun Mir, a security analyst in Kabul, said the Taliban have sought to undercut government authority and convince their own fighters they are winning the war, all while maintaining pressure on the United States to withdraw its troops.

“They are showing their capacity to undermine government functions anywhere in the country and thus not allow it to protect major population centers,” Mr. Mir said.

The Taliban, Mr. Mir added, were also concerned about the morale of their fighters and commanders. “They are under tremendous pressure by relentless military operations by both U.S. and Afghan forces,” he said.

Bill Roggio, editor of The Long War Journal at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the latest insurgent attacks are a continuation of an intensified campaign that began this spring. The Taliban, he said, have sought to overwhelm what he called “overstretched” Afghan security forces.

“The Taliban has all the leverage it needs as the U.S. has signaled it is desperate for a peace agreement and President Trump said he wants to end the war in Afghanistan,” Mr. Roggio said in an email.

Atiqullah Amarkhel, a retired Afghan Army general and military analyst in Kabul, said the recent attacks made a mockery of a July 9 declaration in Doha to reduce civilian casualties. After two days of informal talks between Taliban and Afghan representatives, the two sides pledged to “minimize civilian casualties to zero” and protect hospitals and schools.

“In Doha, the Taliban said they won’t attack civilians, but that was just words,” Mr. Amarkhel said. “They keep attacking civilians — anytime, anywhere.”

A man received treatment last week after a suicide attack at a wedding in Nangarhar Province.

The recent insurgent attacks have seemed rapid-fire and well-planned. On Thursday, Taliban suicide bombers exploded a vehicle at a police headquarters in Kandahar, penetrating the base and triggering a firefight. Local officials said two police officers and nine civilians were killed, and 89 people were wounded. Eight Taliban were also killed, the Kandahar police chief said.

Last Saturday, two Taliban gunmen took over a hotel in Qala-i-Nau, the capital of Badghis Province in northwestern Afghanistan. In the ensuing siege, two government security agents and two police officers were killed, local officials said.

On July 12, a boy detonated a suicide vest at a wedding party in eastern Afghanistan, killing eight civilians — including a child — and the commander of a local pro-government militia. No group took responsibility.

And on July 11, local officials said three farmers who had refused to pay taxes to the Taliban in Sar-i-Pul Province were killed by the militants, who also burned their crops.

The fighting has ensnared civilians in other ways. On Wednesday, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan said the Taliban had forced the agency to close 42 health facilities in Taliban-controlled areas of Wardak Province, cutting off care for thousands. The clinics reopened on Friday, according to the ministry of health.

The government had conducted its own raid on a Swedish Committee clinic in Wardak this month, searching for a Taliban official and prompting the militants to close all the clinics in reprisal.

The government has also acknowledged killing civilians in certain cases. On July 9, the day the Doha talks were suspended, local officials reported that seven civilians died when their home was struck by an Afghan airstrike in Baghlan Province in northern Afghanistan.

A Defense Ministry statement confirmed the civilian deaths and said an investigation had begun. “Avoiding civilian casualties,” it said, “is a priority.”

Fatima Faizi and Jawad Sukhanyar contributed reporting from Kabul.

A version of this article appears in print on July 19, 2019, Section A, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: Suicide Bombing at Afghan University Kills 10 as Insurgents Step Up Attacks.

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