Afghanistan human rights workers killed in Kabul blast

Two employees of Afghanistan’s human rights body were killed in a bomb attack in Kabul on Saturday, the agency said.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said the pair died when a homemade “sticky bomb” attached to their vehicle exploded in the morning.

Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramurz confirmed the attack, which has not been claimed by any group.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan condemned the killings. “There can be no justification for attacks against human rights defenders,” it said on Twitter, calling for an immediate probe.

It comes less than a week after two prosecutors and three other employees from the attorney general’s office were shot dead by gunmen on the outskirts of Kabul.

On May 30, a television journalist was killed when a minibus carrying employees of private channel Khurshid TV was hit by a roadside bomb in the city. That attack was claimed by the ISIL (ISIS) group.

Violence had dropped across much of the country after the Taliban offered a brief ceasefire to mark the Eid al-Fitr festival last month, but officials say the group has stepped up attacks in recent weeks.

Most attacks by the Taliban have targeted Afghan security forces, although there are regular police reports that civilians have been killed in roadside bomb blasts.

On Saturday, the National Security Council said 21 civilians were killed and 30 wounded in attacks over the past week across 14 provinces.

The Taliban and the Afghan government are preparing to enter into much-delayed peace talks aimed at ending the war in the country. The so-called intra-Afghan talks come after the Taliban signed an agreement with the United States.

US President Donald Trump wants to withdraw troops from the country after nearly 19 years. It had toppled the Taliban from power in an invasion in 2001.