Gunmen kill two Afghan female judges in Kabul

KABUL: Gunmen shot dead two Afghan female judges working for the Supreme Court during an early morning ambush in the country’s capital on Sunday.

A spokesman for the Supreme Court, Ahmad Fahim Qaweem said the terrorist attack on the judges as they were driving to their office in a court vehicle. “Unfortunately, we have lost two female judges in today’s attack. Their driver is injured,” Qaweem added.

The spokesman said, “There are more than 200 female judges working for the country’s top court. The government will make sure their security in future,” he added.

It is worth mentioning here Afghanistan’s Supreme Court was a target in February 2017 when a suicide bomb ripped through a crowd of court employees, killing at least 20 and injuring 41.

In recent months, several prominent Afghans including politicians, doctors, journalists, activists, students and prosecutors have been assassinated in often brazen daytime attacks in Kabul and other cities of the country.

Afghan officials have blamed the Taliban for the attacks, a charge the insurgent group has denied. Some of these killings have been claimed by the rival jihadist Islamic State group. Earlier this month, the US military for the first time directly accused the Taliban of orchestrating the attacks.

“The Taliban’s campaign of unclaimed attacks and targeted killings of government officials, civil society leaders & journalists must… cease for peace to succeed,” Colonel Sonny Leggett, the spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, said on Twitter.

The Taliban's campaign of unclaimed attacks & targeted killings of government officials, civil society leaders & journalists must also cease for peace to succeed. 2/2

— USFOR-A Spokesman Col Sonny Leggett (@USFOR_A) January 4, 2021

The latest attack comes just two days after the Pentagon announced it had cut troop levels in Afghanistan to 2,500, the fewest in nearly two decades. The targeted killings have surged despite the Taliban and Afghan government engaging in peace talks in the Qatari capital of Doha.