Ten people killed as Afghan vice-president Amrullah Saleh escapes roadside bomb attack in Kabul

A roadside bomb in Kabul targeted first Afghan Vice-President, Amrullah Saleh, on Wednesday, morning but he escaped unharmed, his spokesperson said.

The attack killed at least 10 people.

The Taliban denied involvement in the attack, which comes just ahead of long-awaited peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Qatar’s capital Doha.

“Today, once again the enemy of Afghanistan tried to harm Saleh, but they failed in their evil aim, and Saleh escaped the attack unharmed,’’ Razwan Murad, a spokesperson for Saleh’s office, wrote on Facebook.

He told Reuters the bomb targeted Mr Saleh’s convoy and some of his bodyguards were injured.

Mr Saleh appeared in a video on his social media accounts soon after, saying he had sustained a minor burn on his face and an injury to his hand in the attack.

Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a post on Twitter that Taliban fighters were not involved in the blast.

The former intelligence chief and the senior of President Ashraf Ghani’s two vice-presidents, has survived several assassination attempts, including one on his office last year that killed 20 people.

Wednesday’s blast killed at least 10 civilians and wounded 15 people including Mr Saleh’s security guards, according to the Interior Ministry.

Source: Premium Times