At least 14 people were killed and dozens more wounded when a busy market in northern Afghanistan was hit by mortar fire, officials said on Saturday.
Several Taliban shells hit the market on Friday morning in the Khwaja Sabz Posh district of Faryab province, according to Hanif Rezaee, an Afghan Army spokesman. “Fourteen civilians were killed and 40 — including women and children — were wounded,” said Mr. Rezaee. He said the Taliban had been trying to hit an Army checkpoint near the market. The insurgent group did not immediately comment.
Naem Musamim, Faryab’s public health director, said 14 bodies and 39 wounded people, including four children, had been taken to local hospitals. Some victims with critical injuries were airlifted to hospitals in Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province.
Also on Friday, a bomb detonated inside a Shia mosque in Ghazni city in central Afghanistan, killing two worshippers and wounding 20 more, according to Ghazni Governor spokesman Aref Noori.
On Twitter, the Taliban denied involvement in the attack. The Islamic State group’s Afghan affiliate has conducted frequent prior attacks on Shia targets.
Also, talks between the U.S. and the Taliban have been paused while another summit with Afghan representatives takes place, a Taliban spokesman said on Saturday. The insurgents have been meeting with U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatari capital of Doha to try to forge a deal.
Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman for the Taliban’s office in Qatar, said they were pleased with progress in the talks. “Tomorrow and the day after, because of the intra-Afghan conference, no talks will take place,” he tweeted, referring to separate talks due to start on Sunday in Doha between the Taliban and Afghan delegates.
About 60 Afghan delegates are expected to attend Sunday’s intra-Afghan dialogue.
The Taliban, who have steadfastly refused to negotiate with the government of President Ashraf Ghani, have stressed that those attending will only do so in a “personal capacity”.
