Nepali guards among dead in Kabul blast

The Taliban claimed the first attack which killed 14 Nepali security guards working for the Canadian Embassy in Kabul in a massive blast that left their mini bus spattered with blood. The insurgents also claimed a second, smaller blast in south Kabul targeting a local politician that the interior ministry said killed one person and injured five others, including the politician. 

The Kabul blasts were followed just hours later by an attack on a market in the remote north-eastern province of Badakhshan that authorities said killed at least eight people and wounded 18, with the death toll set to rise. The wave of violence comes ten days after Washington announced an expansion of the US military’s authority to conduct air strikes against the Taliban.