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Gunfire heard early Tuesday in Kabul after midnight attack

The Taliban claimed a much higher death toll, saying they killed 58 officers and commanders in the strikes.

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“We believe two attackers have entered the building”.

Six people were also wounded in the skirmish overnight, which happened the day after 41 people died in twin bomb attacks in the Afghan capital.

The attack had been preceded by twin Taliban blasts that killed at least 24 people during the city’s rush hour on Monday, including high-level officials, and left 91 others wounded.

After the blast in Share Naw, three gunmen barricaded themselves in close to an office of aid group Care International and a government complex.

Security sources said the explosion was caused by a Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) that was detonated in the city’s Shahr-e-Naw area, Khaama Press reported.

Soon after the third explosion, the three remaining terrorists engaged security forces in a fierce gun battle that ended only on Tuesday morning, security officials said.

Two weeks ago, gunmen stormed the campus of the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, detonating explosives and shooting at students, staff and faculty.

The fighting started almost eight hours earlier when the suicide attack was followed by gunfire, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior (MoI) on Tuesday said that the target of Monday night’s bombing in Kabulcity appears to have been a charity by the name of CARE (Pamlarana). An Afghan army general and a Kabul police station chief were among the dead, according to Mr. Sediqqi.

At least five people were confirmed dead and 13 others wounded, health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said.

Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, tweeted that the group carried out the attacks. “The enemies of Afghanistan have lost their ability to fight the Security and Defense Forces of the country”, he said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, as it steps up its bloody campaign against Afghanistan’s Western-backed government.

In July a suicide bomber from the self-styled Islamic State (IS) targeted a protest march by members of the Shia Hazara minority in Kabul, killing 80 people.

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Kabul traffic was blocked in several parts of the city and schools in the area were closed, as security officials evacuated civilians from their offices and homes near the explosion site.

Taliban twin bombings kill 24 people in Afghanistan's capital