Afghan bomb kills at least 8; UN slams high civilian deaths

A powerful car bomb killed at least eight people and wounded 47 in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. Hours later, the U.N. condemned an “alarming” increase in attacks in the country targeting civilians.

The death toll in the explosion late Friday that also destroyed 14 houses is expected to rise because several of the injured were critical, said Rafiq Sherzai, a spokesman for the provincial hospital.

One among the dead and 11 of the injured were Afghan Security Forces personnel while the remainder were civilians, including women and children, said Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian.

An injured girl is treated at a hospital after a car bomb attack in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 13, 2021. A powerful car bomb killed at least eight people and injured 47 in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. (AP PhotoHamed Sarfarazi)

No one immediately claimed responsibility.

Within hours of the attack, the U.N. Security Council at a press briefing in New York condemned an “alarming” increase in attacks in Afghanistan targeting civilians even as the Taliban and the Afghan government hold on-again-off-again talks in Qatar.

“These heinous attacks have targeted civil servants, the judiciary, the media, health care and humanitarian workers, including women in prominent positions, those who protect and promote human rights, and ethnic and religious minorities,” the council said.

An injured girl lies in a hospital bed after a car bomb attack in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 13, 2021. A powerful car bomb killed at least eight people and injured 47 in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. (AP PhotoHamed Sarfarazi)

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for many of the targeted killings while the Taliban and the government have blamed each other for trying to sabotage efforts to reach a peace agreement.

The slow pace of talks and the increasing violence has prompted the United States to cobble together a peace proposal, which was delivered last weekend. Both sides are expected to review and revise the eight-page plan ahead of a far-reaching meeting the U.S. has proposed to be held in Turkey within weeks, when Washington hopes to see an agreement.

The U.S. meanwhile is reviewing a peace deal the Trump administration signed with the Taliban, which calls for the final withdrawal of the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1.

An injured man is treated at a hospital after a car bomb attack in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 13, 2021. A powerful car bomb killed numerous people and injured dozens more in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. (AP PhotoHamed Sarfarazi)

The growing consensus is for a delay but in a sternly worded letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last weekend pressing for progress on making peace with the Taliban, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said all options, including the withdrawal, are still on the table.

The proposed peace deal offered by the U.S. calls for an interim “peace government" to shepherd a post-war Afghanistan to elections and constitutional reforms. It also calls for the protection of equal rights for women and minorities.

The U.N. Security Council also called for “full, equal and meaningful participation of women,” and a quick move toward a reduction in violence.

A security officials inspects the site of a car bomb attack in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 13, 2021. A powerful car bomb killed numerous people and injured dozens more in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. (AP PhotoHamed Sarfarazi)

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

An injured man is treated at a hospital after a car bomb attack in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 13, 2021. A powerful car bomb killed numerous people and injured dozens more in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. (AP PhotoHamed Sarfarazi)

Security officials inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 13, 2021. A powerful car bomb killed numerous people and injured dozens more in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. (AP PhotoHamed Sarfarazi)

Locals inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 13, 2021. A powerful car bomb killed numerous people and injured dozens more in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. (AP PhotoHamed Sarfarazi)

Security officials inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 13, 2021. A powerful car bomb killed numerous people and injured dozens more in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. (AP PhotoHamed Sarfarazi)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for an American believed to be held by the Taliban for nearly two years are asking a United Nations human rights investigator to intervene, citing what they say is cruel and inhumane treatment.

Ryan Corbett was abducted Aug. 10, 2022, after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family had been living at the time of the collapse of the U.S.-based government there a year earlier. He arrived on a valid 12-month visa to pay and train staff as part of a business venture he led aimed at promoting Afghanistan's private sector through consulting services and lending.

Corbett has since been shuttled between multiple prisons, though his lawyers say he has not been seen since last December by anyone other than the people with whom he was detained.

In a petition sent Thursday, lawyers for Corbett say that he's been threatened with physical violence and torture and has been malnourished and deprived of medical care. He's been held in solitary confinement, including in a basement cell with almost no sunlight and exercise, and his physical and mental health have significantly deteriorated, the lawyers say.

Corbett has been able to speak with his family by phone five times since his arrest, including last month. His family has not been able to see him — his only visits have been two check-ins from a third-party government — and their characterizations of his mistreatment are based on accounts from recently released prisoners who were with him and his openly dispirited tone in conversations.

“During Mr. Corbett’s most recent call with his wife and children, Mr. Corbett indicated that the mental torture and anguish have caused him to lose all hope,” said the petition, signed by the Corbett family attorneys, Ryan Fayhee and Kate Gibson.

The petition is addressed to Alice Edwards, an independent human rights investigator and the special rapporteur for torture in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the U.N. It asks Edwards, who was appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, to “urgently reach out to the Taliban to secure Mr. Corbett’s immediate release and freedom from torture, as guaranteed by international law.”

"This situation is just dragging on, and I’m increasingly concerned and taking steps that I hope will make a difference and help the situation — just increasingly concerned and panicking about Ryan’s deteriorating health and physical and mental health," Corbett's wife, Anna, said in an interview. “And that was leading me to take this next step.”

The U.S. government is separately working to get Corbett home and has designated him as wrongfully detained. A State Department spokesman told reporters last month that officials had continually pressed for Corbett's release and were “using every lever we can to try to bring Ryan and these other wrongfully detained Americans home from Afghanistan."

A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry in Afghanistan said this week that it had no knowledge of Corbett's case.

Corbett, of Dansville, New York, first visited Afghanistan in 2006 and relocated there with his family in 2010, supervising several non-governmental organizations.

The family was forced to leave Afghanistan in August 2021 when the Taliban captured Kabul, but he returned the following January so that he could renew his business visa. Given the instability on the ground, the family discussed the trip and “we were all pretty nervous,” Corbett's wife said.

But after that first uneventful trip, he returned to the country in August 2022 to train and pay his staff and resume a business venture that involved consulting services, microfinance lending and evaluating international development projects.

While on a trip to the northern Jawzjan province, Corbett and a Western colleague were confronted by armed members of the Taliban and were taken first to a police station and later to an underground prison.

Anna Corbett said that when she learned her husband had been taken to a police station, she got “really scared” but that he was optimistic the situation would be quickly resolved.

That, however, did not happen, and Anna Corbett, who has three teenage children and makes regular trips to Washington, said she's trying to advocate as forcefully as she can while not letting “anxiety take over.”

“I feel like it’s the uncertainty of all of it that just is so difficult because you just don’t know what’s going to come at you — what call, what news," she said. "And I’m worried about Ryan and the effect of the trauma on him and then also on my kids, just what they’re experiencing. I've tried to protect them the best I could, but this is so difficult.”

Associated Press writer Riazat Butt in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

This family photo shows Ryan Corbett holding rabbits with his daughter Miriam and son Caleb in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2020. Lawyers for Corbett, believed held by the Taliban for nearly two years, are asking a United Nations human rights investigator to intervene, citing what they say is cruel and inhumane treatment. Corbett was abducted on August 10, 2022 after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family had been living at the time of the collapse of the U.S.-based government there one year earlier, on a valid 12-month business visa to pay and train staff. (AP Photo/Anna Corbett)