Taliban claim responsibility

A Taliban suicide bomber struck a police base in central Kabul on Monday, killing at least 20 people just days before a fresh round of international talks aimed at reviving dialogue with the Islamist group.

Scores of people were also wounded in the bombing at the entrance of the base, which left several bodies and charred debris strewn around the area.

The attack comes amid the Taliban’s unprecedented winter offensive despite a renewed push to restart formal peace talks.

The interior ministry initially reported the attack as a suicide car bomb, but later said the attacker appeared to be on foot and detonated himself in a queue of people waiting to get inside the base.

“Twenty people were reported killed and 29 others were wounded in a suicide attack in Deh Mazang square of Kabul city,” deputy interior minister Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said on Twitter. “Most of the victims were civilians.”

The Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid had earlier reported a death toll of nine.

The health ministry said some of those wounded were hit in the chest by flying shrapnel and are in critical condition. Ambulances rushed to the scene, which was cordoned off by authorities.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with insurgent spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claiming on Twitter that up to 40 police were killed and wounded. The militants routinely exaggerate the toll in attacks on the Afghan government.

The carnage comes just ahead of a third round of four-country “roadmap talks” trying to lay the groundwork for direct dialogue between Kabul and the Islamist group.

Delegates from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States are set to convene in Islamabad on February 6 in a bid to seek a negotiated end to the Taliban insurgency, now in its fifteenth year.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks on government and foreign targets in Afghanistan this winter, when fighting usually abates, underscoring a worsening security situation.

Observers say the intensifying insurgency highlights a push by the militants to seize more territory in an attempt to wrangle greater concessions during talks.