Over 40 killed in suicide attack

Students among victims of blast at Afghan news agency

KABUL: A suicide attack on an office of the Afghan Voice news agency and a neighbouring Syiah cultural centre in Kabul killed dozens, officials and witnesses said, with many of the victims students attending a conference.

Interior Ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said at least 40 people had been killed and 30 wounded in the blast, the latest in a series to have hit media organ- isations in Kabul.

The attack occurred during a morning panel discussion on the 38th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Sunni- majority Afghanistan at the Tabian Social and Cultural Centre, with many of those attending students, witnesses said.

Sayed Abbas Hussaini, a journalist at the agency, said there appeared to have been more than one explosion during the attack, following an initial blast at the entrance to the compound housing the two offices. He said one reporter at the agency had been killed and two wounded.

Photographs sent by witnesses showed what appeared to be serious damage at the site, in a heavily Syiah Muslim area in the west of the capital, and a number of dead and wounded on the ground. Deputy Health Minister Feda Mohammad Paikan said 35 bodies had been brought into the nearby Istiqlal hospital.

Television pictures showed many of the injured suffered serious burns.

President Ashraf Ghani’s spokesman issued a statement calling the attack an “unpardonable” crime against humanity and pledging to destroy terrorist groups.