UPDATE - Multiple Blasts rock Afghan capital Kabul

UPDATES WITH DEATH TOLL; ADDS REMARKS OF AFGHAN PRESIDENT, TALIBAN STATEMENT

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) - Multiple bomb explosions in the Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday killed at least 11 people including five women and a child, officials and local media said.

According to the Interior Ministry, a minibus carrying the Mines and Petroleum Ministry employees was hit by a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle.

Nusrat Rahimi, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told Anadolu Agency that the minibus picked the Mines and Petroleum Ministry employees from the Macroryan area in the heart of the city early in the morning and was on the way to the office when the attacker targeted it.

The Health Ministry confirmed eight people got killed and more than 20 others got wounded in the attack. Five women and a child were among those killed in the attack.

The second attack, which was described as a car bombing, took place on the main Kabul-Jalalabad highway in the eastern Dispatchery neighborhood.

Salam Afghanistan, a local radio, reported that three civilians were killed and more than 10 others wounded in the attack.

The Taliban rejected their involvement in the attack targeting ministry vehicle, however, claimed the responsibility for the highway attack, asserting that a convoy of foreign troops was targeted.

Meanwhile, seven civilians were killed Thurday when an improvised explosive device blasted near a roadside in Nangarhar province, said an official.

President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani condemned the attacks, and blamed the Taliban for trying to seek upper hand in the ongoing peace talks with the U.S. in Qatar via such attacks.

“…The Taliban are on one hand engaged in [Doha] talks and on other hand repeat such human calamities and crimes, but they must know that with this they can neither gain advantage in peace talks nor escape from the disgust and hatred of the people,” he said in a statement.