Afghanistan: 7 Killed, Several Injured After Car Bomb Blast Near Interior Ministry In Kabul

At least seven people were killed and seven wounded when a car bomb detonated in Kabul on Wednesday. Interior ministry spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, said the bomb had gone off in a neighbourhood which is near the interior ministry and north of Kabul airport. He said the dead were all civilians. "This is the initial information, more details later," he added. However, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The blast comes just two days after Taliban commanders and a leader of the Haqqani militant group were released in exchange for two professors, an American and an Australian.

Last month, an explosion rocked a mosque in eastern Afghanistan as dozens of people gathered to offer Friday prayers, causing the roof to collapse and killing 62 worshippers.

Earlier, United Nations in its report said that Afghan civilians are dying in record numbers in the country's increasingly brutal war, noting that more civilians died in July than in any previous one-month period since the UN began keeping statistics.

"Civilian casualties at record-high levels clearly show the need for all parties concerned to pay much more attention to protecting the civilian population, including through a review of conduct during combat operations," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan.

The report said that pro-government forces caused 2,348 civilian casualties, including 1,149 killed and 1,199 wounded, a 26 per cent increase from the same period in 2018.

The report said 2,563 civilians were killed and 5,676 were wounded in the first nine months of this year. Insurgents were responsible for 62 per cent. July to September were the deadliest months so far this year.

In western Herat province, six civilians including four children were killed Thursday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, said Jelani Farhad, spokesman for the provincial governor. He added that five other civilians were wounded in the attack in the Zawal district.