Afghan police seal off centre of Kabul after attacks

Afghan security forces sealed off the centre of Kabul on Tuesday as they battled gunmen who barricaded themselves inside the offices of an international aid group after a car bomb attack the night before.

Afghan security forces have since killed the last surviving gunman holding out more than 10 hours after the complex attack, an Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

Initial reports indicated one person had been killed and six wounded in the attack, with 31 people rescued from the area, a ministry official also said.

After several hours of quiet overnight, sporadic gunfire and explosions could be heard as day broke. Smoke was seen rising from the site where gunmen were still holed up.

Kabul traffic was blocked in several parts of the city and schools in the area were closed, as security officials evacuated civilians from their offices and homes near the explosion site.

“When the explosion happened, all of our windows broke and for a minute I thought that the house had collapsed on us,” said Toghrul Big, who was wounded by broken windows.

The attack in a prosperous business and residential area of the capital took place just hours after 24 people were killed and 91 wounded in twin blasts claimed by the Taliban in a bustling area of the city close to the Defence Ministry.

The attacks highlighted the precarious security climate in the capital just a month before a conference in Brussels where international donors are expected to pledge continued financial support to Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s ability to conduct coordinated high profile attacks in Kabul has piled pressure on the Western-backed government, which has struggled to reassure a war-weary population that it can guarantee security.

The twin blasts near the Defence Ministry killed a number of security personnel. An army general and two senior police commanders were among the dead, a Defence Ministry official said. Another official said the deputy head of President Ashraf Ghani’s personal protection force had also been killed.