Gun battle ends in Kabul after blast hurts 105

Afghan security forces killed five Taliban gunmen who stormed a building in Kabul yesterday after detonating a bomb-laden truck that wounded at least 105 people, including 51 children, officials said.

The gun battle lasted more than seven hours, a security official said, adding that the Taliban fighters in the under-construction building fired at Afghan forces who rushed to the blast site to evacuate the wounded.

“Clashes ended with the death of all five attackers,” said interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi, adding that more than 210 people had been rescued during the operation.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

“The target was the defence ministry’s technical installation,” the Islamist militants’ spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement.

Afghan security officials said the truck loaded with explosives was detonated near the ministry’s engineering and logistics department at rush hour.

About 100 wounded people were taken to hospital, said health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar, but there was no immediate word of fatalities.

Fifty-one children in two schools near the blast site were hurt by flying shards of glass, said Nooria Nazhat, a spokeswoman of the education ministry.

A security guard at Shamshad TV was killed and several employees hurt in their office near the blast site, said director Abid Ehsas.

The blast sent a plume of black smoke rising over the city and shook buildings.

The area has a cluster of military and government buildings, as well as an office of the Afghan Football Federation, whose chief, Yosuf Kargar, was among several members injured.