Taliban fighters stormed a guesthouse next to the Spanish embassy in the Afghan capital on Friday, sparking an armed standoff with security forces in the upscale area popular with expatriates.
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The attack follows a 27-hour Taliban siege this week of Kandahar airport, the largest military installation in southern Afghanistan, in which at least 50 people died, including women and children.
Spain said one of its police officers was killed in the bombing.
Friday night, Taliban attackers detonated a auto bomb outside the guesthouse and stormed the building, and then exchanged fire with security forces, officials said.
It was not clear if the guesthouse belonged to the Spanish Embassy.
Sporadic gunfire rang out in the area after the Friday evening attack – in which seven civilians were wounded – but the Afghan government announced early Saturday that the siege had ended.
Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told the BBC: ” I can only confirm a suicide vehicle bomb in the Sherpur area at this moment”. At least seven people were treated in a nearby hospital run by Italian aid group Emergency, mainly for minor injuries.
At least three insurgents are involved in the attack, a police official said.
A Taliban spokesman said the attack had targeted “an invader’s guest house”.
Almost six hours after the brazen raid began, a series of fresh blasts and a volley of gunshots ripped through the area as security forces battled with the insurgents.
Taliban militants have surfaced in pockets of Afghanistan as US and coalition forces have reduced their presence in the country.In September, the militants briefly seized the town of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan.
It is unclear whether the Taliban planned the attacks deliberately to retaliate against Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s recent visit to Pakistan, which occurred during the Kandahar attacks, to strengthen ties with the Pakistanis and discuss ways to reduce the Taliban’s threat in Afghanistan.
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Nabil, who strongly opposed Ghani’s moves toward a rapprochement with Pakistan, said in his letter of resignation from the National Directorate of Security (NDS) that there had been “a lack of agreement on some policy matters” in recent months.
