Controlled explosions shake Kabul

Police are questioning the demining team because it had not warned authorities in advance of their activity

KABUL: Two large explosions heard in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Saturday were controlled blasts by deminers, the city's deputy police chief said.

Sayed Gul Agha Rohani told Reuters that police were questioning the demining team because it had not warned authorities in advance of their activity.

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Earlier on August 22, a car bomb targeting a vehicle carrying foreign citizens killed 12 people outside a hospital on a busy Kabul street, part of a wave of attacks in the capital since news broke last month of the death of Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Scores were injured. The force of the blast destroyed several vehicles, including a school van and a pick-up truck left twisted and blackened, with another vehicle in flames. Paramedics carried away casualties on stretchers.

Last week's bomb was placed in a Toyota sedan, a security official at the scene said. Flames billowed from the car and parts of it were ripped apart by the blast and scattered along the street.

Read: Kabul car bomb targeting foreign contractors kills 12 people

Glass was blown out of the windows of the Shinozada hospital and a six-storey building opposite.