Blasts, gunfire heard at military hospital in Kabul, casualties unknown By Reuters

KABUL (Reuters) – At the very least two explosions adopted by gunfire hit Afghanistan’s largest army hospital in Kabul, witnesses and Taliban officers stated on Tuesday.

Inside ministry spokesman Qari Saeed Khosty stated the explosions came about on the entrance of the 400-bed Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan hospital.

“Safety forces are deployed to the realm, there isn’t a details about casualties,” he stated on Twitter (NYSE:).

Images shared by residents confirmed a plume of smoke over the realm of the blasts close to the previous diplomatic zone within the Wazir Akbar Khan space in central Kabul.

There was no fast declare of duty. However the official Bakhtar information company quoted witnesses saying a variety of Islamic State fighters entered the hospital and clashed with safety forces.

The blasts add to a rising listing of assaults and killings because the Taliban accomplished their victory over the earlier Western-backed authorities in August, undermining their declare to have restored safety to Afghanistan after a long time of conflict.

Islamic State, which has carried out a sequence of assaults on mosques and different targets because the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul in August, mounted a fancy assault on the 400-bed hospital in 2017, killing greater than 30 individuals.

A well being employee on the hospital, who managed to flee the location, stated he heard a big explosion adopted by a few minutes of gunfire. About ten minutes later, there was a second, bigger explosion, he stated.

He stated it was unclear whether or not the blasts and the gunfire have been contained in the sprawling hospital advanced, the most important army hospital in Afghanistan.