Taliban claim suicide car bombing in west Kabul, dozens hurt

A suicide car bomber targeted the police headquarters in a minority Shiite neighborhood in western Kabul on Wednesday, setting off a huge explosion that wounded dozens of people, Afghan officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was killed.

The bomber detonated his car at a security checkpoint, police spokesman Firdaus Faramarz told The Associated Press. A military training school is also located nearby.

Public health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said the wounded, including women and children, were taken to local hospitals.

Local media showed footage of a large plume of smoke rising above that part of Kabul, which is home to many of the minority Hazara community. The police headquarters has been targeted in the past, including an attack in 2017 that left more than 20 dead.

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Interior Ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi told local station TOLO news station that no other attackers were involved in Wednesday’s blast, and he denied reports of a gunbattle.

In their claim of responsibility, the Taliban said they targeted a recruitment center for security forces.

The Taliban, who have been staging near-daily attacks across the country, usually target Afghan forces and government officials or those seen as loyal to the government. The Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan, which has also been behind several large-scale attacks in Kabul, frequently targets minority Shiites.

Wednesday’s attack comes against the backdrop of another round of talks this week between the Taliban and the U.S. in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, where the insurgents maintain an office.

Also on Wednesday, Rahimi said an hours-long clearance operation by Afghan forces against insurgents in eastern Kabul had ended with weapons caches found.

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