It was the latest incident in a blood-soaked week that saw militants deliver crippling blows to government forces across Afghanistan. “Clashes are ongoing and the area is cordoned off by the Afghan security forces,” said Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai. The firefight erupted near a training facility overseen by the National Security Directorate — Afghanistan’s intelligence agency — with the gunmen holed up in a construction site near residential homes, an official at the scene said. The attack comes just hours after a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside an education centre in western Kabul, where students were studying for college entrance exams, killing at least 37 people. IS, however, has carried out multiple attacks in the eastern city of Jalalabad and the capital in recent months, targeting sites ranging from government ministries to a midwife training centre.

Source: The Guardian August 16, 2018 07:30 UTC