Series of attacks rock Kabul
KABUL: Gunmen attacked an area around a security base and training centre for Afghanistan’s intelligence service yesterday in the capital Kabul, officials said.
Staff and officials at the centre took shelter in a protected area of the compound as gunfire came from a halffinished building near the site.
Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said the attackers were firing rocketpropelled grenades and other weapons but it was unclear how many gunmen were involved.
The area around the site was closed off but media reported that gunfire and at least one explosion could be heard.
There was no initial word on any casualties or claim of responsibility.
Military and intelligence facilities in Kabul have been regularly targeted by insurgents.
The latest incident comes at a time of high tension following a series of attacks including a fullscale assault on the city of Ghazni last week.
Earlier, a suicide blast in a mainly Shi’ite area of Kabul killed at least 34 people.
The explosion, targeting an educational centre in the west of the Afghan capital, tore through a large tent set up as a classroom in the courtyard, killing dozens of teenagers studying for a university entrance examination. The blast, which shattered weeks of relative calm in Kabul, also wounded at least 67, including both male and female students.
‘‘Most of the boys at the educational centre have been killed,’’ said Sayed Ali, who witnessed the blast. ‘‘It was horrific and many of the students were torn to pieces.’’
Islamic State said one of its militants was responsible for the deadly suicide bombing, the group’s Amaq news agency said, without providing proof.
Amaq said the attacker was wearing a suicide vest.
This attack came just hours after the Taliban said it could no longer guarantee safe passage for Red Cross staff working in Afghanistan, amid a row over the treatment of Taliban prisoners in a jail in Kabul.
On Wednesday, officials said at least nine policemen and 35 soldiers were killed in an attack on their base in the northern province of Baghlan, the latest of a series that has killed dozens of members of the security forces. — Reuters