Kabul, Afghanistan — A suicide car bomber targeted the police headquarters in a minority Shiite neighborhood in western Kabul during morning rush hour Wednesday, setting off a huge explosion that wounded scores of people, Afghan officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
There was no immediate confirmation of any deaths in the attack, the second in the Afghan capital in as many days.
In Wednesday’s attack, the bomber detonated his car at a security checkpoint outside the building, police spokesman Firdaus Faramarz told The Associated Press. A military training school is also located nearby. The Taliban said they targeted a recruitment center for security forces.
The Reuters news service cites a health ministry spokesperson as saying 95 people were wounded, mostly civilians, with women and children among them.
Local media showed a large plume of smoke rising above that part of Kabul, which is home to many of the minority Hazara community. The facade of one multi-story building had been ripped away. Shopkeepers were sweeping up broken glass.
“I was having breakfast in a restaurant when the explosion happened,” said Mohmmad Qasem. As windows shattered, he and others rushed into the busy street.
The police headquarters has been targeted in the past, including an attack in 2017 that left more than 20 dead.
Interior Ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi told the local TOLO news station that no other attackers were involved in Wednesday’s blast, and he denied reports of a gun battle.
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. On Tuesday, a bomb targeting a van carrying employees of the Interior Ministry’s counter-narcotics division killed five people and wounded seven in Kabul.
The Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), 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.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy tasked with finding a peaceful resolution to the nearly 18-year war – America’s longest conflict – this week reported “excellent progress” at the Qatar talks. A Taliban official on Tuesday said differences had been resolved over the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and guarantees from the insurgents that they will cut ties with other extremist groups.
A State department spokesperson told CBS News, “There are still details to discuss. As a result, there is no agreement yet. Any agreement we conclude will be condition-based. We are pursuing a peace agreement, not a withdrawal agreement.”
The Taliban have continued to sideline the Kabul government from the talks, dismissing it as a U.S. puppet and refusing to negotiate with it.
The Taliban also called for a boycott of September 28 elections Tuesday and threatened to attack campaign rallies.
The Taliban now control roughly half of Afghanistan and are at their strongest since 2001, when the U.S.-led invasion toppled their government after it harbored al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Khalilzad has said he is hoping for a final agreement by Sept. 1 that would allow the roughly 20,000 U.S. and NATO forces to leave the country.
Also on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry spokesman said an hours-long clearance operation by Afghan forces against insurgents in eastern Kabul had ended with weapons caches found.
And in northern Baghlan province, security forces foiled an attack by insurgents, said Jawed Basharat, spokesman for the provincial police chief. He said a suicide bomber in a Humvee tried to attack an Afghan base but was killed. No security forces were killed, Basharat said.
