KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 40 people were killed and 140 people injured after an explosion rocked Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, the Ministry of Public Health said Saturday.
The attacker used an ambulance to get through one security checkpoint by telling police he was taking a patient to a nearby hospital. He then detonated his explosives at a second check point, Nasrat Rahimi deputy spokesperson for the Interior Ministry said.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack, which sent thick, dark smoke into the sky from from the site of the explosion near the government’s former Interior Ministry building.
“It is a massacre,” said Dejan Panic, coordinator in Afghanistan for the Italian aid group Emergency — which runs a nearby trauma hospital.
In a message on Twitter, the group said more than 70 wounded had been brought in to that hospital alone and that seven were dead on arrival.
The blast comes a week after a deadly attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in the city killed 22 people, including four Americans. The hotel attack was claimed by the Afghan Taliban.
Ahmed Mengli reported from Kabul. Saphora Smith reported from London.