Kabul: Two suicide attacks in Kabul on Friday killed at least 35 people and injured hundreds. A suicide bomber attacked a Police Academy in Kabul on Friday evening, killing at least 20 recruits. Officials said that the attacker, dressed in a police uniform walked into a group of recruits outside the academy and detonated his explosives at the entrance of the building.
The attack came only hours after a truck bomb killed at least 15 people and injured over 400 near a government complex and a military base in a residential area. Even as President Ashraf Ghani issued a strong statement, no group has claimed responsibility for either of the attacks.
Ghani said, "This incident is of its own unique kind unfortunately. Right now we are paying attention to the incident and tomorrow we will hold a special security meeting on Kabul security."
The Taliban distanced themselves from the first bombing that struck near a Kabul military base -- as they usually do in attacks that result in a large number of civilian casualties.
But the insurgents were quick to claim responsibility for the second attack, which marks a serious breach of security at a premier training institute for Afghan security
forces.
The carnage highlights growing insecurity in the country amid a faltering peace process with the Taliban as Afghan forces face their first summer fighting season without full NATO support.
Friday's bombings are the first major attacks after Mullah Akhtar Mansour was named as the new Taliban chief last week, in an acrimonious power transition after the insurgents confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar.
Observers said the escalating violence demonstrates Mullah Mansour's attempt to boost his image among Taliban cadres and drive attention away from internal divisions over
his leadership.
A truck packed with explosives detonated just after midnight near an army base in the neighbourhood of Shah Shaheed, rattling homes across the city, ripping off the facades of buildings and leaving scattered piles of rubble.
The force of the explosion created an enormous crater in the road, around 10 metres deep, and destroyed the boundary wall of the base, although no military casualties were reported.
"The death toll from the early Friday attack... has risen to 15," deputy presidential spokesman Sayed Zafar Hashemi said, adding that "240 people have been wounded -- including women and children".
The health ministry said the number of wounded could run even higher, with most suffering injuries from flying glass.
Kabul Police Chief General Abdul Rahman Rahimi said officials were searching for anyone trapped under the mangled concrete debris.
Soldiers erected a security cordon around the military base close to Shah Shaheed, a largely middle-class civilian residential area with no major foreign presence.
The wounded were overwhelming city hospitals, officials said, with reports emerging of blood shortages and urgent appeals for donors circulating on social media.
Later Friday, a suicide attacker dressed in police uniform blew himself up at the entrance of Kabul Police Academy, killing at least 20 Afghan cadets who were returning after their two-day weekend.
The bomber managed to place himself in a queue as police trainees were waiting to be searched before entering the academy, said a senior Afghan intelligence official, requesting anonymity.
"The attacker was wearing police uniform... when he detonated his explosives, 20 cadets were killed and 20 more were wounded," the official said.
Another police official confirmed that toll while a third senior security source said that 25 cadets were killed.
The Taliban were behind the suicide attack, the spokesman for the group, Zabihullah Mujahid said.
Heavily-armed security officials cordoned off the area and ambulances with wailing sirens were seen rushing to the scene.
The academy in west Kabul is a premier training institution for police forces in Afghanistan, with between 2,000 and 3,000 cadets graduating every year.
(With additional information from AFP)
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