KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th May, 2019) At least eight people were killed and over 50 others were injured on Sunday in an attack by Taliban militants on the police headquarters in Pol-e-Khumri city in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan, a local health official, Abdul Halim Ghafuri, told Sputnik.
The Taliban, in a statement, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it had detonated an explosive-laden humvee tank at the entrance to the police headquarters.
The Afghan Interior Ministry's spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, said that two of the attackers had been killed and the remaining ones were surrounded by Afghan security forces.
The TOLOnews broadcaster reported later on Sunday, citing the Afghan Interior Ministry, that the number of killed policemen had surged to 13, while 55 people, including 20 civilians, had been injured. The broadcaster also said that at least eight militants had carried out the attack, and all of them had been eliminated.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani qualified the incident as a terrorist attack and extended his condolences to the families of the victims, according to a statement by the presidential palace.
The attack came soon after US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, in a tweet, demanded the Taliban to lay down its arms and "embrace peace."
Meanwhile, the sixth round of US-Taliban peace talks has entered its fourth day in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Afghanistan has long been in a state of turmoil, with the government fighting the Taliban movement, which has been holding vast territories in rural areas under its control and regularly launching offensives across the country. The situation has been exacerbated by the activities of the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia), which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2015.
