At least 22 people, including six military personnel, were killed in a suicide bombing in the centre of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, said the Ministry of Interior Affairs on Tuesday.
Nearly 40 others, including women and children, were wounded in the incident, the ministry said in a statement.
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.
A spokesman for the group, Zabiullah Mujahid, tweeted that the bomber targeted a Defence Ministry facility, leaving dozens of Afghan security forces dead and injured.
Since the beginning of 2019, 221 people have been killed and 1,058 others have been injured in 20 attacks and bombings in Kabul alone.
Earlier this month, a Taliban car bomb close to the site of Tuesday’s bombing left 10 Afghans, and a U.S. and Romanian soldier dead.
The incident was cited by U.S. President Donald Trump as a reason to cancel talks about a political solution to the conflict with the Taliban.
After nine rounds of talks between the U.S. representative for Afghan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the Taliban political leadership in Doha, both sides were on the verge of signing an agreement to end the 18-year-long war before the announcement.
After the cancellation of the talks, experts warned that the conflict parties might further escalate violence in the country.
dpa/NAN
