At least 13 killed and 95 injured in a car bomb explosion in Afghanistan

At least 13 people have been killed and 95 injured this Sunday by a car bomb explosion near a police headquarters in the Afghan city of Firozkoh, in the western province of Ghor, for which the government has blamed the Taliban.

"Today around 11:00 local time (6:30 GMT), terrorists detonated a vehicle loaded with explosives near the entrance to the Provincial Police Headquarters and the Provincial Women's Bureau," the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The spokesman for the state health department, Jumagul Yaqoobi, told Efe that so far they have recovered "13 bodies and 95 injured" in their hospital. Yaqoobi said the number of victims is not definitive and could increase in the next few hours.

Most of the victims are civilians, Ghor Maroof Ramish's police spokesman told Efe, "although there are also members of the security forces among the casualties".

The spokesman for the provincial governor, Arif Aber, told Efe that "it was a strong explosion that created panic among the citizens", as well as causing damage to nearby buildings. "Our security forces are busy evacuating bodies and injured people to the hospital," Aber said.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, although the Afghan government has blamed the Taliban and warned that such actions damage the peace process. "This type of violence and continued attacks by the Taliban pose a serious challenge to the ongoing peace process," the Presidential Palace denounced in a statement, before condemning the attack.

"The Afghan government and people want to end the war and once again we call on the Taliban to stop their illegal and anti-Islamic war (...) and accept peace and a ceasefire," the Presidential Palace concluded.

This attack comes in the midst of the peace talks launched on 12 September in Doha between the insurgents and the Afghan government and other representatives of civil society, to try to put an end to almost two decades of war in Afghanistan.

So far, however, the parties have failed to agree on the rules and regulations of the talks that are necessary to enter the initial phase of negotiations.

Furthermore, the Taliban launched the first massive attack on a provincial capital in Afghanistan this week, seven months after the signing in Doha of the historic agreement with the United States in which the insurgents promised to reduce violence and agreed to withdraw US troops within 14 months.