At least five people, including four doctors at the Afghanistan's main prison facility, were killed and two others injured in a bomb blast in the capital Kabul, officials confirmed on Tuesday.
The incident took place in Doghabad neighborhood during morning rush hour, when the doctors were on their way to the central Pul-e-Charkhi prison facility, Firdaus Faramarz, a Kabul police spokesman, told Anadolu Agency.
'It is shocking to learn of d deaths of Office of Prison Administration doctors, who work tirelessly each day to save vulnerable lives, especially during a pandemic when frontline medical personnel are desperately needed. I condemn the attack this morning in Kabul.' @USAmbKabul https://t.co/6sxwEasb8d
— Afghanistan Times (@AfghanistanTime) December 22, 2020
He said the doctors were targeted with a bomb attached to their vehicle.
Dr. Nazifa Ibrahimi, the acting head of the health directorate of the prisoners' affairs authority, was among the five killed in the explosion, the authority said in a statement.
A woman and a child passing by the blast site were also injured.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack as a string of identical targeted assaults rocked the war-ravaged nation.
At least nine civilians were killed and many more wounded in a similar blast in Kabul on Sunday aimed at targeting a member of the parliament.
The doctors worked at the Puli Charkhi prison, Kabul’s main penitentiary, and were killed as they were on the way to their office in the city’s Doghabad neighbourhood. https://t.co/zJINNoPA7Q #Afghanistan
— The Hindu (@the_hindu) December 22, 2020
On Thursday, the UN secretary general’s special representative for Afghanistan said civilian casualties caused by improvised explosive devices surged by over 60% in the past two months.
This came as the ambiguous peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Qatar’s capital Doha are paused for at least three weeks.
The talks are aimed at ending the nearly two-decade-long conflict following a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban inked earlier in February that calls for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
