Kabul: At least four people are feared dead in a powerful suicide attack in Kabul early on Tuesday, the latest in a series of fatal blasts to hit the Afghan capital. A small truck packed with explosives rammed the gate of a compound housing foreigners on the city’s eastern outskirts soon after sunrise, said the interior ministry’s spokesman Seqid Sediqqi.
Two security guards were killed, he said, adding he could not confirm their nationality. The area where the blast took place has a number of compounds housing foreign companies, as well as international military bases but it was not clear which was targeted.
The country’s first vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum was at the site soon after the blast, along with members of the Afghan army’s rapid reaction force. The blast, which sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky, was heard across the city.
Sediqqi said that gunfire was also heard before the explosion as security guards fired on the truck as it approached the compound gate. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Kabul has been shaken by a series of attacks in recent months, following the inauguration of President Ashraf Ghani.
In the past week, suicide bombers have targeted the chief of police in an attack also claimed by the Taliban, and a high-profile female parliamentarian.
Both survived, though civilian casualties were high.
Bureau Report
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