Asia

Asia

ISIL claims deadly attack near Iraqi embassy in Kabul

31 July 2017 11:27 (UTC +04:00)

ISIL group has claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul on Monday, the group's website reported.

Sources tell Al Jazeera that fighters are holed up in a building close to the embassy in Shar-e-Naw and a gun battle is under way.

Two fighters "attacked the Iraqi embassy building in the Afghan city of Kabul", the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group said in a statement released on their website "Amaq News Agency", without providing further details.

Police confirmed the blast had taken place, but said they did not immediately have further information.

"We heard two explosions near the Iraqi embassy and part of the building has been damaged," Mohsen Negaresh, a witness, told Al Jazeera.

The Iraq embassy is located in a part of the city known as Shahr-e-Now, which lies outside the so-called "green zone" where most foreign embassies and diplomatic missions are located and which is heavily fortified with a phalanx of guards and giant cement blast walls.

By comparison, the Iraqi embassy is located on a small street in a neighbourhood dominated by markets and businesses.

The attack comes a week after at least 35 people were killed in a Taliban claimed suicide attack on government workers in Kabul and underlines the precarious security in Afghanistan as the US administration considers an overhaul of its policy in the region.