JALALABAD: A Taliban suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed at least 12 army recruits on a bus in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said, hours after a similar attack killed two people in Kabul.

The latest blast hit a bus in the Sorkh Rud district of Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan. Twelve bodies and at least 38 wounded had been taken to the main hospital in Jalalabad, hospital chief Ihsanullah Shinwari said.

The number of casualties was expected to rise, several officials said.

“The suicide bomber was on a three-wheel motorcycle and targeted new army recruits who were heading to Kabul for training,” said a police official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to discuss matters concerning the Afghan army.

Defence Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri confirmed one of the ministry’s buses carrying army recruits had been attacked but put the number of wounded at 26.

“It was a crowded area and it is hard to say now how many of them were from the defence ministry,” Mr Waziri said.

Hours earlier, a bomb hit a mini-bus carrying Education Ministry workers in eastern Kabul, killing two people and wounding seven, the ministry said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said they had carried out the attack outside Jalalabad. However, no group had claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack.

Government workers and members of the security forces are often targeted by insurgent groups, including the Taliban, who are seeking to topple the US-backed government in Kabul.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks since most foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of 2014, although Kabul had enjoyed a period of relative calm during the harsh winter months.

In Kabul, bus conductor Rahim Gul said the force of the blast threw him out of the vehicle.

“We picked up the Education Ministry staff and we were moving ahead when there was an explosion,” he said.

“It was very powerful and threw me out of the window. A few minutes later I found myself in a wheat field and then I rushed to the site of the attack and helped some injured people and they were taken to hospital.”

The attacks came days after US Secretary of State John Kerry paid a visit to Kabul to underscore his support for Afghanistan’s beleaguered unity government and call on the insurgent group to resume direct peace talks.

Afghanistan, the US, China and Pakistan in January formed a four-way group to try to jumpstart peace talks that were first held in Islamabad last July but fell away after it emerged later that month the Taliban’s leader Mullah Omar was dead, leading to infighting within the group.

But the Taliban have refused to return to the negotiating table until their conditions are met, including the departure of 13,000 foreign soldiers who are on a mission to train and advise their Afghan counterparts.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2016