Attacks leave 36 dead in Kabul in clear message to Afghan leaders - washingtonpost

KABUL — A wave of terrorist attacks in the Afghan capital Friday, most aimed at government and foreign military sites, left 36 people dead, hundreds more wounded and the government reeling from a brazen challenge by new Taliban insurgent leaders.

The attacks — including a massive truck bombing near an Afghan military base, a suicide bombing at the national police academy, and an armed assault on a NATO military base that left one coalition service member dead — came days after Taliban leaders canceled peace talks and vowed to continue waging religious war against the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for only the police academy bombing, in which a militant wearing a police uniform walked up to the facility gates and detonated his explosives amid hundreds of returning recruits, killing at least 20 and wounding 24, police said.

But officials said they thought that the Islamist insurgents were probably behind the entire 24-hour terrorist blitz, which began with the 1 a.m. truck bombing that killed at least 15 in a crowded neighborhood near an Afghan military installation and ended with unconfirmed reports of late-night explosions near a U.S. Special Operations compound. 

Ghani, who returned earlier this week from medical treatment in Germany, swiftly vowed to respond forcefully to the new Taliban threat. He toured an area of buildings flattened by the truck bomb, visited a wounded police recruit in the hospital and held an emergency cabinet meeting. - Read More

Attacks leave 36 dead in Kabul in clear message to Afghan leaders

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