KANDAHAR: The UAE ambassador to Afghanistan was injured in a blast on Tuesday as bombings across three Afghan cities killed around 50 people and wounded 100 others.
The attack, which took place during a meeting between senior officials and diplomats from the UAE Embassy, wounded 17 others, including the provincial governor, Al Jazeera Channel reported.
In a statement, the UAE Foreign Ministry said it was “following the heinous terrorist attack on the guesthouse of the Kandahar governor which resulted in the injury of Juma Mohammed Abdullah Al-Kaabi, UAE ambassador to Afghanistan, and a number of Emirati diplomats.”
At least 11 people died when explosives hidden in a sofa detonated inside the governor’s compound in southern Kandahar during a visit by the UAE ambassador.
The governor and Al-Kaabi were wounded by flames from the explosion, but many others were burned beyond recognition, provincial police chief Abdul Raziq told AFP.
Just hours before, twin Taliban blasts in Kabul tore through employees exiting a Parliament annexe, which houses the offices of lawmakers, killing at least 30 people and wounding 80 others.
Earlier Tuesday, a Taliban suicide bomber killed seven people in Lashkar Gah, the capital of volatile Helmand province, as the militants ramp up nationwide attacks despite the onset of winter, when fighting usually wanes.
The carnage underscores growing insecurity in Afghanistan, where US-backed forces are struggling to combat a resilient Taliban insurgency as well as Al-Qaeda and Daesh militants.