Kabul: A coordinated double suicide bombing by the Islamic State group hit central Kabul this morning, killing at least 25 people, including eight journalists, officials said.
An AFP photographer and a cameraman for a local TV station were among the fatalities, the police said. A BBC reporter was also killed.
At least 45 people were wounded in the twin attacks, according to Kabul police spokesman, Hashmat Stanekzai, who also added that four policemen were among those killed.
The attack was the latest in a relentless string of deadly large-scale bombings and assaults that have struck Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan so far this year.
And as the Afghan capital reeled from Monday’s assault, a suicide car bombing a few hours later in the southern province of Kandahar killed 11 children, a police spokesman said.
In a statement posted on an IS-affiliated website, the Islamic State group said two of its martyrdom seekers carried out the double Kabul bombings, targeting the headquarters of the “renegade” Afghan intelligence services.
The blasts took place in the central Shash Darak area, home to NATO headquarters and a number of embassies and foreign offices as well as the Afghan intelligence service.
Stanekzai, the police spokesman, said the first suicide bomber was on a motor bike. The second explosion was meant to hit those rushing to the scene of the attack to help the victims of the first blast, he added.
