KABUL: At least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded when a truck bomb tore through central Kabul and a fierce gunfight broke out on Tuesday, a week after the militants launched their annual spring offensive.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a densely crowded neighbourhood, which sent clouds of acrid smoke billowing into the sky and rattled windows several kilometres away.

“One of the suicide attackers blew up an explosives-laden truck in a public parking lot next to a government building,” Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told reporters.

“The second attacker engaged security forces in a gunbattle before being gunned down.”

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said 30 people, including women and children, were killed in the attack and warned that the toll could rise.

He added that more than 320 people were wounded, with many of them battling for their lives in hospital.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed their fighters had managed to enter the offices of the National Directorate of Security, the main spy agency.

Sediqqi conceded that one of the attackers managed to breach the compound, a government office responsible for providing security to government VIPs, but said he was gunned down after a gunfight.

Peace talks which began last summer were abruptly halted after it was revealed that Mullah Omar had been dead for two years, a disclosure which sparked infighting in the insurgents’ ranks. A four-country group comprising Afghanistan, the United States, China and Pakistan has been holding meetings since January aimed at jump-starting negotiations, though their efforts have so far been in vain.

Visit put off

Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah announced he was postponing his upcoming trip to Pakistan after “initial evidence of today’s suicide attack”.

He offered no further details.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2016