By Zabihullah Tamanna
KABUL, (AA, ): A large explosion rocked Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Friday evening, police said. Six people were killed and many injured in the attacks.
Officials said the attackers reportedly targeted the Spanish embassy and had entered a building near the compound.
“Kabul police are at the site of the explosion,” Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said. “We are gathering details as they emerge.”
Emergency Hospital, an Italian-run medical facility located less than a kilometer from the blast site, said on Twitter that it has received seven injured people following the attack.
Two foreigners including a Spanish security officer and four Afghan police were also killed in the attack, in a heavily protected part of Kabul close to several embassies and government buildings, Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid said.
In addition, nine Afghan civilians were wounded and another 47 Afghans and foreigners were rescued from nearby buildings where they were trapped as security forces sealed off the area around the guest house, which guards at the site said formed part of the Spanish embassy compound.
Early Saturday, the Afghan government announced that the siege had ended.
“Afghan Police Special Forces have killed all the attackers who were involved in last night terrorist attack in Kabul,” information ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said in a tweet.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for suicide attacks in Kabul’s Sherpoor area Friday. Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, “Suicide attacks started on a guesthouse of invaders in the Sherpoor area of Kabul in the evening.”
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called the assaults in Kabul’s Sherpoor district a terrorist attack, telling reporters that it appeared to have targeted guesthouses near the Embassy.
Although the Afghan government hasn’t confirmed any casualties, information from the Spanish government and an aid group suggested at least eight people were injured.
Afghan VP Abdul Rashid Dostum and other high-level government officials live in the area.
Earlier this week, Taliban militants killed at least 50 civilians and security personnel in a coordinated attack on Kandahar airfield.
