Taliban bombing kills at least nine in east Afghanistan

A humvee was used in the attack on intelligence forces

Afghan National Army in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province in January. Reuters

At least nine members of Afghanistan's intelligence were killed in a suicide car bombing on Monday that the Taliban said was a response to President Ashraf Ghani's declaration of war on the insurgents last week.

At least 40 others were wounded when the bomber drove a stolen military Humvee loaded with explosives into a National Directorate of Security base near Ghazni city in eastern Afghanistan, according to Arif Noori, the spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province.

He said eight of the wounded were in critical condition and were transferred to the capital, Kabul, for treatment.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the insurgents were behind the attack. The group controls most of the countryside in Ghazni and twice seized its main city for brief periods in recent years.

The attack came a day after President Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah signed a power-sharing accord in Kabul, ending a bitter feud over the presidential election in September. The deal raised hopes of launching peace talks between the government and the Taliban as part of an agreement between the insurgents and the United States.

The Taliban stepped up attacks on Afghan security forces after the February 29 deal, which only committed them to not attacking foreign forces in Nato's US-led support mission in Afghanistan.

On Sunday in Ghazni, gunmen killed five people – three civilians and two police officers – as they were travelling in the district of Jaghatu. The interior minister's spokesman Tariq Arian blamed the Taliban for the attack.

Last Tuesday, militants stormed a maternity hospital in Kabul, killing 24 people, including mothers, nurses and two babies. The same day, a suicide bomber killed 32 people and wounding 133 others at the funeral of a pro-government militia commander and former warlord in the eastern province of Nangarhar. The funeral attack was claimed by ISIS, but no group claimed responsibility for the hospital attack.

In a televised speech hours after the attacks, Mr Ghani called on security forces to attack the Taliban, reversing the defensive posture taken by the government as it prepared for talks with the insurgents.