Iran Press/Asia: The attack took place around 8:30 am in Gardiz, the capital city of Paktia province in a crowded area of the city near to a military installation and provincial revenue department, Ministry of Interior said.
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said “tens of” members of the army in the targeted building were either killed or injured, Afghanistan Times reported.
The militants tried to justify the attack as a response to a recent decision of the government to order security forces to switch from an active defensive posture to offensive mode.
The government decided to end defensive mode of the security forces nearly two and a half months after the Taliban on several occasions denied to reduce the level of violence in the country or to accept a ceasefire.
According to a recent update by the government, the Taliban has carried out 3,712 attacks, since signing a deal with the US in February. In these attacks besides the security forces, 469 civilians have been “martyred” and 948 others injured.
However, this has been the first major truck bomb attack by the Taliban in an urban area of the country since the group signed a deal with the United States.
On Tuesday, 24 were killed and 16 others were wounded in an attack on a maternity hospital that lasted more than five hours.
On the same day earlier, also, 45 people were killed in an explosion at a funeral in the eastern province of Nangarhar, said the local officials. 103 others were wounded in the blast, officials said.
ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
On the other hand, Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesperson of the Taliban rejected his group involvement in the Kabul and Nangarhar attacks but strongly reacted to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani’s order to Afghan forces to revive offensive operations against the group and called it a declaration of war.
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