On Monday 3 June, an improvised explosive device (IED), placed on a bus carrying government employees in Kabul, Afghanistan, exploded, killing five people and wounding at least ten.

In the past weeks, the Taliban and ISIS have conducted attacks in Kabul, with four bombings on 2 June and deadly suicide bombings on 30 May and 31 May. However, the perpetrators of the IED bus bombing remain unknown. Officials say the victims were predominantly staff members of the Afghan Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission.

During the same week, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, visited the area to conduct peace talks with Qatar-based envoys of the Taliban insurgency in attempts to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan.

The bombing occurred on the day before the Eid al-Fitr festivities, the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. Monday’s tragedy also came shortly after the head of the United Nations  Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Tadamichi Yamamoto, appealed to the Taliban and U.S.-backed Afghan security forces to stop fighting so that the Afghans could celebrate Eid in peace. Yamamoto said, “I strongly urge all parties to the conflict to stop violence and to respect this time of reflection and tolerance so that everybody in Afghanistan can enjoy Eid peacefully.”

To read more, visit:

https://www.albawaba.com/news/ied-blast-leaves-5-afghan-civil-servants-killed-kabul-1289608

https://www.voanews.com/a/deadly-bus-blast-rattles-kabul-on-eve-of-eid/4943371.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/five-killed-in-bus-bombing-in-kabul/29978712.html

Author: Giulia DeLuca; Editor: Aleksandra Krol