US President Donald Trump's surprise visit to Afghanistan was a cutting image of how President Ashraf Ghani's government has become an afterthought.
Talks "will resume from where they had stopped", Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says a day after US President Trump signalled the Afghan insurgent group would agree to a ceasefire.
The US and Taliban are engaged in ongoing peace talks and the insurgents want a ceasefire, President Trump said during a surprise Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, said several others were wounded in the attack.
The exchange for one American and one Australian imprisoned by the militant group was announced by the Afghan government on November 12 but was delayed when the commanders did not land in Qatar earlier.
All those killed in the suicide attack were Afghan civilians, and the nationalities of the four foreigners wounded were not yet confirmed.
Islamabad announced it was indefinitely shuttering its consular office in Kabul for security reasons after it said several staff were harassed by unknown assailants on roads in the Afghan capital.
Jawed Basharat, Baghlan police chief's spokesman, says six other people were wounded in the attack in Dand Shabuddin, outside of Puli Khumri, the provincial capital.
Afghanistan's national security advisor Hamdullah Mohib, a strong critic of earlier US-Taliban negotiations that excluded his government, said the Taliban no longer operate as a cohesive body and some commanders may have joined Daesh.
The Saudi-Iran feud risks spilling over into Afghanistan as both countries push for greater influence with competing groups in the war-torn country.
Taliban representatives said the militant group released three Indian engineers they had held captive. No confirmation from New Delhi and Afghan government as yet.
A crop of dedicated security chiefs hold the keys to Afghanistan's future, not the Taliban.
Subscribe to our Youtube channel for all latest in-depth, on the ground reporting from around the world.
Copyright © 2019 TRT World.
Like
Follow