A suicide bomber blew himself up on a busy shopping street near the heavily-fortified US embassy in central Kabul Tuesday, killing four people and injuring several others, officials said.
It was the latest in a series of deadly attacks to hit the Afghan capital, and comes around three months after a massive truck bomb ripped through the same area, killing about 150 people.
“At around 10:00 am (0530 GMT) a suicide bomber set off his explosives near a private bank and close to Massoud Square. More details later,” Najib Danish, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s interior ministry, told AFP.
He added in a message on Twitter that four people had died in the attack.
The blast happened at a time when many officials were expected to be collecting their salaries ahead of this week’s Eid holiday.
Kabul Bank, the private bank hit by the blast, usually pays the salaries of security forces personnel and government employees.
Images broadcast on Afghan television showed the bank’s mangled exterior.
Waheed Majroh, a health ministry spokesman, told AFP one dead body and eight wounded people had been brought to Kabul hospitals so far.
The blast occurred on a street lined with shops and banks leading to Massoud Square, near the United States embassy and Kabul’s diplomatic area.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Taliban insurgents are currently at the peak of their summer fighting season, and have launched several deadly assaults around the country in recent weeks.
The blast comes a week after United States President Donald Trump committed American soldiers to Afghanistan indefinitely.
After Trump paved the way for more US forces to be sent to Afghanistan the Taliban, which ruled the war-torn country from 1996-2001, vowed to turn it into a “graveyard” for foreign forces.
Source: AFP
