KABUL — Just one month ago, Afghanistan’s moribund peace process seemed to be sputtering to life. Taliban leaders had welcomed delegations from Kabul to their offices in Qatar, and the governor and police chief of Kandahar province had hosted a large regional gathering, declaring that the 16-year conflict had to be resolved through talks and offering a haven for Taliban negotiators and family members.
Today, that hopeful moment has been eclipsed by a one-day blitz of terrorist attacks in Kabul and two other cities on Jan. 10 that left 50 people dead. Two attacks were claimed by the Taliban. The third, an explosion at another gathering hosted by top officials in Kandahar, took the lives of five visiting Emirati diplomats. Amid outraged recriminations from United Arab Emirates officials, Afghan security agencies launched an investigation aided by NATO, and dozens of people were arrested this week.
The circumstances of that bombing remain murky, and the Taliban have repeatedly denied responsibility for the blast, in which sophisticated explosives were detonated remotely after being hidden in a sofa inside a highly secured official compound. The mystery set off a flurry of conspiracy theories pointing to Iran, Pakistan and factional disputes among Kandahari leaders.
Source:-Washingtonpost
Today, that hopeful moment has been eclipsed by a one-day blitz of terrorist attacks in Kabul and two other cities on Jan. 10 that left 50 people dead. Two attacks were claimed by the Taliban. The third, an explosion at another gathering hosted by top officials in Kandahar, took the lives of five visiting Emirati diplomats. Amid outraged recriminations from United Arab Emirates officials, Afghan security agencies launched an investigation aided by NATO, and dozens of people were arrested this week.
The circumstances of that bombing remain murky, and the Taliban have repeatedly denied responsibility for the blast, in which sophisticated explosives were detonated remotely after being hidden in a sofa inside a highly secured official compound. The mystery set off a flurry of conspiracy theories pointing to Iran, Pakistan and factional disputes among Kandahari leaders.
Source:-Washingtonpost
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