Kabul blast toll reaches at least 14 killed, 145 wounded: official

Kabul: The toll from a Taliban suicide attack in Kabul on Wednesday rose to at least 14 dead and 145 wounded, an Afghan official said.

"Fourteen were martyred, 145 injured in today's explosion," deputy interior minister General Khoshal Sadat told reporters, hours after a huge blast shook the Afghan capital.

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The car bomb exploded near the entrance of a police station in western Kabul around 9:00 am (local time), interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.

Health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said at least 95 people, mostly civilians and including women and children, had been taken to hospital.

"I heard a big bang and all the windows of my shop broke with glass flying everywhere," shopkeeper Ahmad Saleh told media.

"My head is spinning and still I don't know what has happened but the windows of about 20 shops around one kilometre from the blast site are broken." The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to footage on social media and witnesses, small-arms fire could be heard following the blast.

A common insurgent tactic is to use a suicide bomber to hit a target and then follow up with gunmen storming the area.

More than 1,500 civilians were killed or wounded in the Afghan conflict in July alone, according to the UN, the highest monthly toll so far this year and the worst single month since May 2017.

Overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, Afghan commandos stormed a safe house for Islamic State fighters near Kabul's airport, officials said. Details of that operation were still emerging.

At least five people were killed and seven wounded in Kabul on Tuesday when a vehicle carrying workers from the counter-narcotics directorate was bombed, the interior ministry said.

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(PTI)