Preparatory talks for peace negotiations between the US and the Taliban will continue Tuesday, according to the Taliban, despite an attack by the militants the day before that left more than 100 dead at an Afghan spy agency base. Taliban representatives have been meeting with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to pave the way for the talks. Washington has agreed to talk about "ending the invasion of Afghanistan and preventing the country from being used against other countries."

The Taliban issued a statement, following the Monday attack on the base in Wardak province, saying it expected members to be at the talks in Doha. The US has not commented. Taliban and US envoys have officially met four times since July, in an attempt to find a negotiated settlement for the 17-year-long war in the embattled country. But it was not clear what effect the Wardak attack would have on the Doha talks. Provincial council member Nafisa Selai Wardak said at least 126 agency members were killed in the attack, which began Monday morning when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive laden-vehicle outside the base.

There were 150 agents housed at the base. All the survivors suffered injuries, Wardak said. Another provincial council member, Mohammad Sardar Bakhtyari, said 60 bodies had been pulled out of the rubble so far, and that up to 130 people may have been killed in total. Bakhtyari claimed Afghan authorities were hiding the real casualty figure.

Salim Asghakhel, the head of public health in the province, said the blast had caused part of the roof of the two-story building to collapse. Military sources say around 35 members of the country's security forces are killed every day in attacks and clashes.

Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2019