Roadside bomb kills 11 people in Afghanistan’s Badghis: Officials

The deadly attack was carried out at around 5:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, when a roadside explosive device went off in Chalank village of Abkamari district, Afghanistan’s Tolo News reported, citing the district governor, Khudadad Tayib.

According to local officials, the blast killed 11 people, including women and children. 

Tayib blamed the Taliban militant group for the bombing, but the group so far has not commented on the attack.

The Saturday bombing was the latest in a series of violent attacks across Afghanistan, which has seen a sharp rise since the US missed a withdrawal deadline it had agreed with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, last year.

The US and its allies overthrew the Taliban regime shortly after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. But US forces have remained bogged down there through the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and now Joe Biden.

All foreign troops were supposed to have been withdrawn by May 1, as part of an agreement that the US had reached with the Taliban in the Qatari capital last year. But Biden last month pushed that date back to September 11.

The Taliban warned that the passing of the May 1 deadline for a complete withdrawal “opened the way for” the militants to take every counteraction they deemed appropriate against foreign forces in the county.