Last Updated Apr 30, 2018 3:03 AM EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan — A coordinated double suicide bombing hit central Kabul on Monday morning, killing 25 people, including journalists, Kabul police said. Also, at least 45 people were wounded, officials said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both Taliban and Islamic State group are active and have repeatedly claimed attacks in Kabul.
Agence France-Presse reported that the news agency’s chief photographer in Kabul, Shah Marai, was among those killed. AFP said Marai died in a blast that was targeting a group of journalists who had rushed to the scene of the earlier suicide attack in Kabul.
Sediqullah Tawhidi, an official form the Afghan Journalist Safety Committee, said a cameraman from the local TOLO TV was among those killed.
A Kabul police spokesman, Hashmat Stanekzai, says four policemen were also among those killed.
Stanekzai says the first suicide bomber was on a motor bike and the second attacker was among the crowd of reporters who rushed to the scene of the first attack. Stanekzai says the second attacker pretended to be one of the media members, then detonated his explosives while still among the reporters.
The suicide attacks took place in the central Shash Darak area, which is home to the NATO headquarters and a number of embassies in Afghanistan. The second was meant to hit those rushing to the scene of the attack to help the victims of the first blast.
AFP said it targeted journalists covering the first bombing.
Kabul chief of police Dawood Amin said the area of Kabul that was hit, which has many foreign offices, was quickly sealed off. Mohammad Mousa Zahir, director of Wazir Akbarkhan Hospital, said several people suffering injuries from the blasts were being treated at the hospital.
The local Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group affiliate and the more firmly established Taliban carry out regular attacks around the country, with the Taliban usually targeting the government and security forces and ISIS targeting the Shiite minority. Large-scale attacks by the two militant groups have also hit the Afghan capital. Both groups want to establish strict Islamic rule in Afghanistan.
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