Deadly suicide blast hits Afghan capital

At least 11 people have been killed in a suicide bombing targeting security forces in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Waheed Majrooh, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health, told Al Jazeera at least 25 others were wounded in Thursday’s attack, which happened in the Banaee area of Kabul’s PD9 district.

Najib Danish, deputy spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, told Anadolu Agency that police officers and civilians were among the victims.

Ambulances rushed to the scene to transfer the wounded to hospitals from the area close to the US embassy and other foreign missions.

The blast happened as police reportedly were carrying out an operation searching for people who were suspected of selling alcohol illegally.

The local Tolo News said 15 people were killed and another 20 people wounded in the bombing, which President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani called an “inhuman terrorist attack”.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group issued a statement via its Amaq propaganda site saying it was responsible for the blast.

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest targeted police officers and intelligence agents, killing or wounding about 80 of them, it said.

The attack is the latest in a wave of violence that killed hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan in 2017.

Both ISIL and the Taliban have carried out attacks in Afghanistan.

Thursday’s bombing happened days after a suicide attacker killed at least 41 people and wounded more than 80 others at a Shia cultural centre in Kabul, underlining the precarious security situation in the Afghan capital.

It too was claimed by ISIL.

Another attack during funeral prayers in Jalalabad city killed 15 people.