(KABUL, Afghanistan) — A large explosion in the eastern part of the Afghan capital on Friday morning killed at least one person, a young girl, and wounded six people, an Afghan official said.
Mohammad Alim Asim, chief of the Kabul ambulance services did not immediately have more details on the explosion or what had caused it. Earlier, police only said there were casualties in the blast but did not release any figures in the immediate aftermath.
Basir Mujahid, spokesman for the Kabul police chief, said the blast occurred in the eastern neighborhood of Qabil Bay, in an area that is home to a police station, the government’s customs offices and some guest houses.
Najib Danish, spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the source of the explosion was a vehicle belonging to a foreign company but did not name it or specify if the blast was a bombing. Later in the morning, Health Ministry official Aismail Kawasi raised the number of wounded to nine.
No more details were immediately available and no militant group claimed responsibility for the explosion.
At the site of the explosion in the Qabil Bay neighborhood, blood pooled on the pavement amid rubble in front of a destroyed building.
Residents in the area said the explosion was a suicide attack but the police did not immediately confirm it. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety.
Kabul has recently seen a spate of large-scale militant attacks by the Taliban and also the Islamic State group, whose affiliate in Afghanistan has grown stronger since it emerged in 2014.
In late January, a Taliban attacker drove an ambulance filled with explosives into the heart of the city, killing at least 103 people and wounding as many as 235.
The Taliban claimed the ambulance attack, as well as an attack a week earlier in which militants stormed a luxury hotel in Kabul, killing 22 people, including 14 foreigners, and setting off a 13-hour battle with security forces.
The recent attacks have underscored the weaknesses of Afghan security forces more than 16 years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban.
On Wednesday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called on the Taliban to take part in peace talks to “save the country,” offering security and incentives such as passports to insurgents who join the negotiations.
Separately, the Taliban said Friday they released five of a total of 19 people they say they abducted on Tuesday along the boundary between the southern Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces.
At the time, Gen. Abdul Raziq, Kandahar’s police chief, said insurgents wearing army uniforms stopped a bus and abducted 30 people. There was no information on the fate of the others.