Taliban Bomber Stage Attack Close To Kabul Airport
The attack comes a day after Pakistan’s army chief, General Raheel Sharif, visited to discuss peace talks with the Taliban. “Both sides agreed that the first round of dialogue between Afghanistan, Pakistan, US and China will be held in January to lay out a comprehensive roadmap for peace,” the Afghan presidential palace said in a statement.
Earlier this month, a suicide bomber attacked a joint Afghan-NATO convoy near Bagram airbase outside Kabul, killing six US soldiers and wounding three others. Afghan forces are currently battling to push out Taliban fighters who seized large swaths of the key, opium-rich district of Sangin in southern Helmand province.
US President Barack Obama announced in October that thousands of US troops would remain in Afghanistan after 2016, back-pedalling on previous plans to shrink the force and acknowledging that Afghan forces were not ready to stand alone.
Source: Al Jazeera
