Taliban targets Afghanistan security compound

A car bombing that targeted a security compound in central Afghanistan on Sunday left at least 12 people dead and more than 180 others injured, many of them children. The Taliban detonated the bomb during rush hour near the office of the top intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), in Ghazni, according to officials. Eight NDS workers and one child were among the dead, health officials said. The injured included at least 60 children who were attending classes at a nearby private school. “The casualty figures may rise as this is not the last report of those injured in the powerful blast,” Zaher Shah Nekmal, a health director in Ghazni province, told Reuters.

The attack occurred while U.S. negotiators in Doha, Qatar, helped lead intra-Afghan talks on ending the country’s 17-year war. U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who described the talks as the most productive yet, denounced Sunday’s attack. “It is unfathomable to endanger children in this way, and I strongly condemn this attack,” he tweeted.