KABUL — (UPDATE – 3:58 p.m. ) At least 80 people were killed and 350 wounded in Kabul on Wednesday when a powerful vehicle-borne bomb exploded in the middle of the Afghan capital, a public health official said.
The attack is one of the most serious seen in the Afghan capital for several months.
The explosion sent clouds of black smoke into the sky above the presidential palace and foreign embassies.
“It was a car bomb near the German embassy, but there are several other important compounds and offices near there too. It is hard to say what the exact target is,” Basir Mujahid, a spokesman for Kabul police, said.
The explosion shattered windows and blew doors off their hinges in houses hundreds of meters away.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. A spokesman for Taliban insurgents said he was gathering information.
Violence around Afghanistan has been rising throughout the year, as the Taliban push to defeat the US-backed government and re-impose Islamic law after their 2001 ouster in a Washington-backed invasion.
Since most international troops withdrew at the end of 2014, the Taliban have gained ground and now control or contest about 40 percent of the country, according to US estimates, though President Ashraf Ghani’s government holds all provincial centers.
US President Donald Trump is due to decide soon on a recommendation to send 3,000 to 5,000 more troops to bolster the small NATO training force and US counter-terrorism mission now totaling just over 10,000.
The commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, told a congressional hearing earlier this year that he needed several thousand more troops to help Afghan forces break a “stalemate” with the Taliban.