A suicide bomber struck Saturday near Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry, killing 12 people and showing the Taliban’s apparent reach into the volatile Asian nation’s capital.
The bomber came on foot and set off the explosives around 3:30 p.m. (6 a.m. ET), said Najib Danish, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry.
Afghan military personnel were among the dead in Kabul, while eight civilians suffered injuries, Danish added.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack it said targeted the Defense Ministry, according to the militant group’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid.
It was one of at least two particularly bloody suicide attacks Saturday in Afghanistan, the other coming 145 miles (235 miles) east of Kabul.
There, in the Kunar provincial capital, Asadabad, a suicide bomber killed at least 11 and wounded 40 by detonating explosives near the governor’s compound in that city, said Abdul Ghani Musamem, spokesman for Kunar province’s governor.
Taliban, ISIS, al Qaeda among Afghan threats
It was not immediately clear who was behind the Asadabad blast, though ISIS has been a growing, disruptive and deadly presence in eastern Afghanistan.
Violence has plagued Afghanistan for decades. In the 1980s and 1990s, wars led to the downfall of a Soviet-backed communist government and, eventually, the Taliban’s rise to power.
The Taliban was ousted — in large part for harboring Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda — following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. The militant Islamist group never went away, continuing to lash out at the new Afghan government and its allies. Nor did al Qaeda evaporate entirely, and new threats like ISIS have emerged.
There were talks last year involving the Taliban and Afghan officials. But there’s been no indication they are going anywhere.