Suicide bombing hits Afghan security forces

A suicide bombing targeted Afghan security forces Tuesday in an attack that comes shortly after the U.S. announced its plan to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Security officials told Reuters that the bombing targeted a convoy in Kabul, but no casualties were immediately reported.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian confirmed on Twitter that an explosion occurred in the area but provided no further details. 

The bombing is the first major attack to hit Afghanistan since President Biden last week laid out his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from the country. 

Under the plan, U.S. forces will leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that sparked the country’s longest war.

Biden said the 20-year conflict should come to an end and that the U.S. achieved its mission of preventing Afghanistan from being a safe harbor for terrorists.

“War in Afghanistan was never meant to be a multigenerational undertaking,” Biden said. “It’s time to end the forever war.”

“I believed that our presence in Afghanistan should be focused on the reason we went in the first place: to ensure Afghanistan would not be used as a base from which to attack our homeland again. We did that, we accomplished that objective,” he added. “I’ve concluded that it’s time to end America’s longest war. It’s time for American troops to come home.”

However, officials and lawmakers have said there is no guarantee that the U.S. will be able to ensure the Taliban keeps up its end of the agreement and ensures that no terrorist groups use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack American interests. 

“I have grave doubts about the Taliban’s reliability,” Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday. “If they want any form of future international recognition for Afghanistan … they’re going to have to keep the agreements that they’ve made.”