Explosion shakes Kabul

No word on casualties yet

KABUL: An explosion shook an upscale area of the Afghan capital on Wednesday, the third day of the Muslim holy month of Ramazan, sending a cloud of smoke and dust into the sky, Reuters witnesses said, but it was not clear if there were any casualties.

Security around Kabul has been tight since Taliban militants announced their annual spring offensive and the group vowed to target Afghan government and foreign installations.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Nasrat Rahimi said the blast was in the Shahr Naw area of Kabul, but he had no details on casualties.

Rahimi added there was sporadic gunfire in the area.

Qais Zaman, a witness, said the site of the explosion was close to the Attorney General’s office. The area was cordoned off as ambulances and police trucks rushed to the scene.

The blast comes just over two weeks after gunmen targeted the communications ministry in central Kabul, killing at least seven people. That attack was claimed by Islamic State.



On April 20, at least seven people were killed in an attack on the Afghan communications ministry in central Kabul, breaking months of relative calm in the capital and underlining the continued security threats despite efforts to open peace talks with the Taliban.

The attack began shortly before midday when a suicide bomb was detonated at the entrance to the multi-storey building housing the ministry in a busy commercial area of the city, followed up by gunfire which could be heard over a mile away.

The interior ministry said in a statement that more than 2,800 employees of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Information and Culture were evacuated during the clearance operation. Several young children and staff at a childcare center for ministry employees were also evacuated.

The blast, which security officials said appeared to have been caused by a suicide bomber, was also close to the heavily fortified Serena Hotel, one of the very few Kabul hotels still used by foreign visitors.

The operation marked a return to the kind of complex attacks in an urban center that have killed hundreds of people in Kabul and other Afghan cities over recent years.