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The Taliban detonated a powerful car bomb in an area of Kabul housing military and government buildings, killing at least 16 the interior ministry told Al Jazeera.
The bomb went off during the morning rush hour in the capital when the streets were filled with people, injuring 105 people, including 26 children and five women, according to the ministry of health.
Mohammad Karim, a police official in the area of the attack, said the vehicle bomb exploded outside a defence ministry building.
At least three fighters then ran into a nearby high-rise located near the ministry’s engineering and logistics department, a government security official said.
“Gunmen have entered a building and they are clashing with the Afghan forces after the powerful blast,” said interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the group’s fighters attacked “the logistics and engineering centres” of the ministry of defence.
Afghan security forces cordoned off the road near the site of the blast as government troops battled Taliban fighters holed up inside a nearby building [Rahmat Gul/AP]
The statement said the large explosion outside the defence ministry building caused “heavy casualties to a number of civilian people”, but said the target of the attack was not civilian, but military.
The United Nations, NGOs and the Afghan government have criticised the Taliban for causing civilian casualties.
“I was sleeping when I heard a huge blast, immediately after that the roof of my room fell on me, leaving me injured,” Ikram, a witness, told Al Jazeera.
“Just a 100 metres away, I saw from my window that fighters were conducting more blasts and shooting. I went out to check on my grandmother and mother, who were both stuck under the rubble after the roof fell on them as well.”
Afghans decried the attack on social media, many sharing photos of children who were injured on their way to school.
Ongoing fighting
Police and special Afghan security forces had cordoned off the area.
The heavily-secured neighbourhood is home to some military and government buildings, including one shared by Afghanistan’s intelligence agency and defence ministry, as well as the Afghan Football Federation and the Afghan Cricket Board.
“Some of our colleagues are trapped inside, we have reports of some injuries. We don’t know if the attackers have entered the building,” Shams Amini, a football federation spokesman said.
The explosion rocked Kabul’s Police District 16 early on Monday [Facebook]
The attack comes two days after the Taliban and the United States began a seventh round of talks in Qatar, where the armed group maintains a political office.
The negotiations have so far centred on four issues – counterterrorism, the foreign troop presence, an intra-Afghan dialogue and a permanent ceasefire.
A potential deal would see the US agree to withdraw its troops after nearly 18 years in Afghanistan, igniting deep concerns among many Afghans who fear the fighters will return to some semblance of power.
In return, the Taliban would guarantee the country would never again become a safe haven for violent groups, as happened with al-Qaeda before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
