above the presidential palace and foreign embassies, officials said
Basir
Mujahid, a spokesman for Kabul police, said several people were killed and
wounded in the blast near the fortified entrance to the German embassy.
"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," Mujahid said.
The
explosion shattered windows and blew doors off their hinges in houses hundreds
of meters (yards) away.
A public
health spokesman said at least 67 wounded people had been taken to hospitals
around Kabul.
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 U.S.-backed government and reimpose 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
U.S. estimates, though President Ashraf Ghani's government holds all provincial
centers.
U.S.
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 U.S.
counter-terrorism mission now totaling just over 10,000.
The
commander of U.S. 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.
REUTERS
REUTERS
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