Twin Taliban suicide blasts in Kabul kill 24, wound 91

Kabul / AFP

At least 24 people were killed and 91 wounded on Monday in a Taliban double suicide bombing in central Kabul during late afternoon rush hour, the latest assault on the Afghan capital.
The carnage near the defence ministry came as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide summer offensive against the US-backed
government.
The two bombers on foot blew themselves up in rapid succession, in an assault apparently aimed at inflicting mass casualties as government employees left the ministry after work.
“The first explosion occurred on a bridge near the defence ministry. When soldiers, policemen and civilians rushed to the scene, there was the second explosion,” defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said.
Health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said the attack left 24 people dead and 91 others wounded, some of them seriously.
“The casualties could rise still further,” Majroh said.
The Italian-run Emergency Hospital in Kabul tweeted that it had so far received 21 injured people, four of whom died on arrival.
President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the attack and offered condolences to the families of the victims.
“The enemies of Afghanistan have lost their ability to fight the Security and Defense Forces of the country,” Ghani said in a statement.
“That is why they are attacking highways, cities, mosques, schools and common people.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that the defence ministry was the object of the first attack, while police were targeted in the second.
The attack took place more than a week after 16 people were killed when militants stormed the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, in a nearly 10-hour raid that prompted anguished pleas for help from trapped students.