Ghazni: A suicide car bomber killed three people and wounded dozens near a NATO-run training base oN Friday, in an attack claimed by the Taliban as revenge for the execution of its militants.
Several NATO soldiers were lightly wounded, a spokesman for the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said, without giving further details. A police spokesman said the blast was near “a joint coordination office” for the Afghan army, police and NATO troops in Maidan Shar, the capital of Wardak province, some 50 kilometres from Kabul.
“From this centre they go for military operations,” Abdul Wali told AFP. The base is close to the provincial governor’s office and two of his bodyguards were among the dead, his spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told AFP.
“We have three killed — two bodyguards of the governor and a 10-year-old girl. Ninety people were wounded, 75 men, 11 women and four children.”
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the blast, saying it was to avenge the execution on Wednesday of four Taliban members on death row in Kabul. “It was a car bomb by our mujahed on a military training centre,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
“It was a revenge attack by our mujahed in response to the execution of four mujahedeen by the Kabul administration.”
The four executed Taliban members were among a total of 14 prisoners hanged over two days this week in rare mass executions. (AFP)