At least 28 dead after Taliban suicide squad hit Afghan capital

At least 28 people have been killed and more than 300 wounded in a Taliban suicide attack on a government security building in Kabul, the Afghan capital’s police chief has said. Heavy gunfire followed the explosion, during rush hour in a residential neighbourhood close to the ministry of defence and military compounds. A Taliban spokesman said the group carried out the attack, a week after it said it was launching its “spring offensive”. It had warned of “large-scale attacks”. The blast sent clouds of acrid smoke billowing into the sky and rattled windows several miles away.

The first blast was carried out by a suicide bomber in a car and possibly one or two bombers are still resisting.

Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi

In a statement, President Ashraf Ghani said: “We condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Puli Mahmood Khan neighbourhood of Kabul, as a result of which many of our countrymen were martyred and wounded." Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed their fighters had managed to enter the office of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the main Afghan spy agency. Afghan officials did not confirm that claim but intense gun battles could be heard near the NDS compound. "The first blast was carried out by a suicide bomber in a car and possibly one or two bombers are still resisting,” interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

Kabul bomb