Multiple Suicide Bombings In Afghanistan Leave Dozens Dead, Scores Wounded

Coordinated suicide bomb attacks near the Afghan intelligence agency building in Kabul have killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens more, including several journalists.

In a separate attack in the southern city of Kandahar, 11 schoolchildren were killed and 16 hurt when a suicide bomber in a truck targeted NATO-led forces.

In Kabul, the first explosion occurred when a suicide bomber riding a motorbike detonated outside the headquarters of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security. When reporters rushed to the scene to cover that explosion, a second suicide bomber on foot struck, suggesting that journalists may have been among the intended targets.

If so, the deaths of at least eight reporters in the twin attacks is one of the worst attacks against journalists in Afghanistan's decades-long conflict, Najib Sharifi, director of the Afghan Journalist Safety Committee, said.

Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai confirmed the casualty figures and said that four policemen were also among the dead.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack via its news agency. The group said it was targeting the intelligence headquarters.

In Kandahar, a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden van into a foreign-force convoy, police said, according to Reuters. The 11 children killed were students at a nearby madrassa, or religious school, says Matiullah Zhman, a spokesman for Kandahar police quoted by Reuters. There was no immediate claim of responsibility in that attack.

A spokesman for Resolute Support, a NATO-led training mission for Afghan forces, says eight Romanian soldiers attached to the unit were also wounded in the attack.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with those wounded, and with the innocent Afghans whose lives were needlessly taken from them by the enemies of Afghanistan," Gen. John Nicholson, Resolute Support commander, said in a statement. - Read More

Multiple Suicide Bombings In Afghanistan Leave Dozens Dead, Scores Wounded

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