Twin explosions at a military hospital in Afghanistan's capital Kabul killed at least 15 people and injured 50, a Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday. Witnesses also reported hearing gunfire and seeing smoke billow from the building.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blasts, but a local chapter of the so-called "Islamic State" has carried out a number of bloody attacks across Afghanistan in recent months. The IS violence has been one of several factors complicating the Taliban's attempts to maintain order since seizing power in August.
The explosions took place at the entrance of the 400-bed Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan hospital in central Kabul, Interior Ministry spokesman Qari Saeed Khosty said, adding that security forces had been sent to the area.
Later on Tuesday, a Taliban official told French news agency AFP that "the attack was initiated by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle who blew himself up at the entrance of the hospital."
Hospital site of previous attacks
The same hospital suffered similar attacks in 2011 and 2017. The 2011 incident killed 6 people when a Taliban suicide bomber entered the building. In 2017, gunmen dressed as medical staff opened fire and killed 30 people. Some have blamed the latter incident on IS, though many Afghan officials suspect the Haqqani family crime network, members of whom are now in the Taliban government.
Although both IS and the Taliban are hardline Sunni Islamist militants, they have differences in their interpretation of Muslim law and on strategy. Each has declared the other an enemy.
The Taliban swept through Afghanistan in August as foreign forces led by the United States pulled out of the country. No foreign government recognizes their administration and they have struggled to keep the country running as they re-implement their repressive understanding of Sharia law.
