At least 95 people were injured after a car bomb exploded outside a police station in Afghanistan's Kabul on Wednesday, August 7.
The explosion took place at around 9 am local time (10 am IST) near the checkpoint of a police station in western Kabul, said interior ministry spokesperson Nasrat Rahimi.
Health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said most of the injured were civilians, including women and children, and have been taken to hospitals.
"I heard a big bang and all the windows of my shop broke with glass flying everywhere," local shopkeeper Ahmad Saleh told AFP.
"My head is spinning and still I don't know what has happened but the windows of about 20 shops around one kilometre from the blast site are broken," he said
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. A statement released by the terrorist group said a "recruitment centre" had been attacked by one of their suicide bombers. "A large number of soldiers and police were killed or wounded," the statement read.
The terror group and the United States are in the process of negotiating a historic pact for the US troop to officially withdraw from Afghanistan, in exchange for the Taliban's promise to not use the country as a base.
The attack took place a day after the Taliban called for a boycott of the Afghan presidential election that is scheduled to take place on September 28.
Afghan security forces also reportedly attacked two Islamic State hideouts in Kabul in an operation that killed two terrorists and led to the seizure of a large number of explosives, according to the National Directorate of Security.
Around three members of the security forces were also killed, reported Reuters.
More than 1,500 civilians were killed or injured in July due to the ongoing Afghan war, according to a recent report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). The number is higher than the UN's numbers that reported 1,366 civilians killed and 2,446 wounded in the six months to June 30.
Last month, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that killed more than 10 people near the Afghan Defence Ministry HQ in Kabul.
