By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA): The Taliban claimed responsibility for a truck bomb that killed 16 people here in the Afghan capital, an official confirmed Tuesday as US signs a peace deal with the Taliban.

Interior ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi said a suicide bombing late Monday took place near the Green Village area on the main Kabul – Jalalabad highway where a number of international aid agencies and a foreign military compound are located.

Rahimi confirmed that all killed and more than 100 injured are civilians. He told Anadolu Agency five attackers were killed and nearly 400 foreign aid workers residing in the area were rescued.

The area witnessed a number of similar attacks in the past that were claimed by the Taliban or the Daesh terror group’s Afghanistan chapter, ISIS-KP.

Minutes before the blast, the top Washington peace negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, said U.S. forces would vacate five military bases in Afghanistan in 135 days after signing a peace deal with the Taliban.

The bombing occurred days after the Taliban attacked Baghlan and Kunduz provinces in the north. The attacks were repulsed by Afghan Army special forces but clashes killed more than 200 people, including more than 100 insurgents.

President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani dubbed it a “failed attack” in clear contrast to the group’s leaders engaging in ongoing peace talks with the U.S. in Qatar.

Afghanistan has witnessed a surge in violence ahead of next month’s presidential elections, which the Taliban opposes.

[Map of Afghanistan By Tooby/Public Domain]