World
A wave of attacks on the Afghan army and police and U.S. special forces in Kabul killed at least 50 people and wounded hundreds, dimming hopes that the Taliban might be weakened by a leadership struggle after their longtime leader's death, writes Reuters.
The bloodshed began on Friday with a truck bomb that exploded in a heavily populated district of the capital and ended with an hours-long battle at a base used by U.S. special forces. It became the deadliest day in Kabul for years.
The Islamist insurgents claimed responsibility for both the police academy attack and the battle at the U.S. special forces base, though not for the truck bomb.
The scale of the violence heightened obstacles to reviving the stalled peace process and conveyed a no-compromise message from the Taliban at a delicate time following last week's revelation of Mullah Mohammad Omar's death and a dispute over the leadership of the insurgency.
"The question is, who is sending the message?" Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network said.
The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said the incident was the worst since it began recording civilian casualties in 2009, with 355 civilians killed or injured. The U.N. Special Representative, Nicholas Haysom, called it "extreme, irreversible and unjustifiable in any terms".
On Saturday, NATO-led coalition forces confirmed that one international service member and eight Afghan contractors were killed in the attack on Camp Integrity, a base used by U.S. special forces near the main airport.
