Kabul, Jan 28 (IANS) The death toll in Saturday's horrific terrorist bombing here has risen to 103, with 235 others injured, Afghan Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak told the media on Sunday.
The Taliban group claimed responsibility for the bloody attack, admitting a suicide bomber blew up an ambulance laden with explosives in the central part of Kabul city.
Some 30 police personnel were among the injured, the interior minister added.
"The enemies have resorted to terrorist attacks as they are losing ground in fight against Afghan security forces," Afghan Defence Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami said.
He said the Afghan security forces have intensified cleanup operations across the country, killing 106 terrorists and injuring 65 others over the past 48 hours.
"Four hijacked military vehicles laden with explosive devices were destroyed, 11 command and control centres of the enemies were also smashed over the period," Bahrami said.
He added that the Afghan air force had conducted 19 airstrikes against the militants across the country over the period.
Mohammad Masoom Stanikzai, the country's intelligence chief, told the media that the country's intelligence agency National Directorate of Security arrested 195 terrorists over the past one week.
Earlier in the day, the Afghan government declared Sunday as a national mourning day to pay tribute to those who were killed in recent terrorist attacks in the insurgency-hit country.
The deadliest suicide attack in months by the Taliban has shocked Afghans from all walks of life and also evoked strong condemnation from around the world, including India and Pakistan.
The Saturday attack is not the first and will not be the last one, Afghan analysts say, believing that the hardliner armed group like in the past years would continue to target Afghans in the future.
"Taliban militants by conducting such deadly offensives in Kabul and killing dozens of people, on one hand want to demonstrate their ability of organising bloody attack and on the other, want to lash out at the ongoing peace efforts," political analyst Nazari Pariani told Xinhua news agency on Sunday.
On January 20, Taliban militants stormed the luxury Intercontinental Hotel which has been frequented by foreigners and Afghan officials, killing 22 people including 14 foreigners and injuring over a dozen others.
The rise in the Taliban' deadly attacks is taking place amid an increase in the number of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan and mounting military crackdowns on the armed insurgents elsewhere in the war-torn country.
Both the Afghan government and the US administration have been calling, some in a warning tone, upon Taliban militants to give up fighting and join the peace process to find a negotiated settlement to the country's lingering crisis.
