Explosion near Foreign Ministry in Kabul causes casualties

Kabul, Jan. 11 (AP/PTI): An explosion went off near the Foreign Ministry in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, causing casualties, a Taliban police spokesman said.

He gave no breakdown for the casualties or provide other details about the blast, the second prominent attack in Kabul so far this year.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province has increased its assaults since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.

Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of the country’s Shiite minority.

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The mid-afternoon explosion was followed by peals of sirens. Taliban security forces prevented journalists from getting close to the site, threatening them with guns and telling them to leave.

Kabul police chief spokesman Khalid Zadran said security teams have been deployed to the site and that details would be shared later. Taliban government officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Checkpoints line the fortified route to the ministry, which is on one of the roads leading to the presidential palace. Guards stop and search vehicles and people along the way.

A photograph posted on social media, purportedly of the blast site, shows at least six bodies on the ground.

In the earlier attack this year in Kabul, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a bombing near a checkpoint at the city’s military airport that killed and wounded several people. There have been no official casualty figures for that attack so far.

IS also claimed an assault on a Kabul hotel in mid-December.