The Taliban claimed responsibility for the carnage minutes after the bombs went off. Photo Credit: Reuters
At least 30 people have been killed and 80 wounded in twin bombings near the Afghan parliament in Kabul, officials say.
The attack took place during rush hour, as staff were leaving the parliament complex.
Minutes after the blasts, a Taliban spokesperson said the group carried out the attack, targeting members of the Afghan intelligence agency.
Most of the victims are said to be civilians, including parliament staff.
Reports speak of a suicide bomber on foot followed by a car bomb.
Afghan sources said a district head of the National Directorate of Security – Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency – was among the dead.
An MP from the western Herat province, Rahima Jami, was said to have been injured.
Waheed Majroh, an Afghan health ministry official, told the BBC that the wounded were taken to Istiqlal and Emergency hospitals.
Initial reports suggest the attack is the bloodiest to strike Kabul for several months.
An injured parliament security guard named as Zabi told AFP: “The first explosion happened outside the parliament… a number of innocent workers were killed and wounded. It was caused by a suicide bomber on foot.”
He said the car containing a bomb “was parked on the other side of the road and flung me back when it detonated”.
Ahmad Wali, police chief of Kabul’s district 7, told the BBC the second bomb went off when police went to help the victims of the first.
He said the explosions were close to the gates of the city’s American University.
Earlier, a suicide bomber on foot struck in southern Helmand province, killing at least seven people.
The violence was again claimed by the Taliban.
Gen Agha Noor Kemtoz, the province’s police chief, said the attack targeted a guesthouse used by an intelligence official in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand.
Civilians and military personnel were killed, he said, and six others wounded.
A car full of explosives was found nearby.
Source: BBC
