Taliban Claim Attack on Afghanistan Defense Minister’s Home

KABUL—The Taliban claimed duty for a elaborate suicide attack targeting the dwelling of Afghanistan’s protection minister that killed 8 folks and wounded 20, one of the most major insurgent strikes in the Afghan cash in current months.

Gen. Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, who took more than as minister of protection right after the Taliban swept by means of northern Afghanistan in June, wasn’t at dwelling in the course of Tuesday night’s attack. The ensuing gunbattle between Afghan special forces and Taliban fighters rattled downtown Kabul for numerous hrs.

The attack came as the Taliban have been urgent into provincial capitals around the country. However the Taliban have fought their way into some of these cities, such as Helmand’s cash of Lashkar Gah, they have been stemmed by weighty U.S. airstrikes and by Afghan special forces flown in as reinforcements.

In a assertion produced Wednesday, the Taliban named the attack on Gen. Mohammadi’s intensely fortified home “the starting of retaliatory operations against the main officers of the Kabul administration.”

Gen. Mohammadi is a previous mujahedeen commander with a extensive file of preventing the Taliban. Several hours right after Tuesday’s blast, Gen. Mohammadi appeared in a movie concept confirming that numerous of his bodyguards experienced been wounded. “With the mercy of God, neither me nor my loved ones members were hurt in this attack,” Gen. Mohammadi explained. “I assure you all, my countrymen, that such incidents will not disrupt my will and morale in defending you and my country.”