At least 40 people have died and many more have been injured in blasts at a religious site in Kabul today.
The Shia Tabayan cultural centre was hit by three blasts, with reports that only the first resulted in casualties.
Nasrat Rahimi, the deputy interior ministry spokesman, told the AFP news agency: “A ceremony was being held to mark the 38th anniversary of Soviet invasion in Afghanistan when the explosion went off.
“We have 40 killed, 30 wounded, but this is not the final toll. It might go up.”
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, although Taliban sources quickly denied involvement.
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11:16
An explosion went off at an office of the Afghan Voice news agency in the capital, Kabul, on Thursday causing serious casualties, officials and witnesses said, the latest in a series of attacks on media groups, APA reported citing Reuters.
Photographs sent by witnesses showed what appeared to be serious damage at the site and a number of dead and wounded on the ground.
Public Health Ministry spokesman Ismail Kawosi said at least four people had been killed and 18 wounded.
However, the final toll may be higher, according to witnesses who said there were heavy casualties among students attending a panel discussion with researchers at the agency’s offices.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The attack, the latest in a series to hit Afghan media groups in recent years, follows an attack on a private television station in Kabul last month.
According to a report this month by media freedom group Reporters without Borders, Afghanistan is among the world’s most dangerous countries for media workers with two journalists and five media assistants killed doing their jobs in 2017.
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