Taliban bombers kill 19, including Afghan election workers

Taliban bombers targeting a district center in southern Afghanistan have killed at least 19 people, including eight election workers, according to officials.

The attack comes as a new round of talks between the United States and the Taliban to end the 18-year long war in Afghanistan entered a second day in Qatar.

The militants rammed four armored vehicles packed with explosives into a government compound in Maruf district late Saturday, a police spokesman in southern Kandahar province said.

“Unfortunately 11 policemen were martyred and 27 more injured,” Qasim Afghan tells AFP.

Eight election workers who were stationed at the center to register voters ahead of the presidential polls in September were also killed in the attack, says Zabiullah Sadaat, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC).

Afghanistan’s twice-delayed presidential election is now slated for September 28.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with a spokesman tweeting that their fighters had captured the district center, killing 57 security forces.

Afghanistan’s interior ministry however rejected the claim, saying in a statement that the militants had been beaten back and 25 insurgents killed.

— AFP