A suicide bomber yesterday killed six civilians in an attack near an Afghan intelligence agency compound in Kabul, in the latest assault claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group in the capital.
The attacker struck as workers were arriving at the offices of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), a week after militants stormed an NDS training center in Kabul.
Afghan Ministry of the Interior spokesman Najib Danish said six civilians in a car were killed when the attacker blew himself up.
Photo: Reuters
“Six people were martyred and three others were wounded,” Danish said.
“They were hit when they were passing the area in their Toyota sedan vehicle. We still do not know the target of the attack, but it happened on the main road,” he said.
The Afghan Ministry of Health confirmed the death toll, but put the number of wounded at one.
A reporter at the blast site said the attack happened outside the main entrance to an NDS compound. Security forces have swarmed into the area, closing off the main road leading to the building.
Ambulances were seen leaving the scene, apparently taking casualties to hospitals in the city.
“Our initial information shows a blast took place near an intelligence headquarters in Shash Darak neighborhood of Kabul,” Afghan Ministry of the Interior deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.
The Islamic State group claimed the attack in a statement via its Amaq propaganda arm. It was the latest claimed assault by the Middle Eastern group in Kabul, which in recent months has become one of the deadliest places in the war-torn nation for civilians.
Security in the city has been ramped up since May 31 when a massive truck bomb ripped through the diplomatic quarter, killing about 150 people and wounding about 400 others — mostly civilians.
Last week’s attack on the intelligence training centre triggered an intense hours-long gunbattle that killed the two militants in an assault that was also claimed by the Islamic State group.
The resurgent Taliban are also stepping up assaults on security installations. On Friday, in an attack claimed by the Taliban, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-packed Humvee into a police compound in the southern province of Kandahar, killing at least six officers and destroying a building.
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