Saudi Arabia strongly condemns attack in Afghanistan’s Logar province
Blast on eve of US pullout deadline kills at least 27
Abu Dhabi: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has strongly condemned a bombing which targeted Afghanistan’s Logar Province on Friday, state news agency SPA reported.
The Kingdom offered sincere condolences to the victims and their families as well as the Afghani government, SPA added.
On the eve of a symbolic date for America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, a truck laden with explosives blew up outside a guesthouse south of the capital on Friday night, killing at least 27 people.
The driver of the truck blew himself up in an attack that also killed numerous students from rural areas, who had been staying at the facility before university entrance exams, officials said. The guesthouse belonged to the family of a prominent member of the Afghan senate, himself recently assassinated by the Taliban.
Dozens of people were buried under the rubble of the obliterated guesthouse in the provincial capital of Pul-e Alam, about 40 miles south of Kabul, and over 100 more were wounded.
20-year military presence
The blast occurred just before a May 1 deadline agreed by the Taliban and US officials that was aimed at ending America’s 20-year military presence in Afghanistan.
The US scrapped the May 1 date two weeks ago when President Biden prolonged the American planned withdrawal until September 11. That extension angered the Taliban, who vowed there would be consequences if the US didn’t fully comply with the February 2020 deal.
The Taliban has often said that an American military presence after May 1 would represent a violation of the Doha agreement, and has threatened to attack US forces in response.