95 killed, 158 wounded in Afghan suicide car bombing

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Meeshika Sharma
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A suicide car bombing has killed at least 95 people and injured 158 others in the centre of Afghanistan's capital.

Attackers drove an ambulance laden with explosives past a police checkpoint into a street that was only open to government workers.It happened near the old interior ministry building and offices of the European Union and High Peace Council.publive-image

They used an ambulance to get through a security checkpoint, telling police he was taking a patient to a nearby hospital.publive-image

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesperson, claimed responsibility for the bombing, which sent thick, black smoke into the sky from the site near the government's former Interior Ministry building. Also nearby are the European Union and Indian consulates.A week ago, Taliban militants killed 22 people in a luxury Kabul hotel.

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Witnesses say the area - home to foreign embassies, the city's police headquarters and a shopping zone known as Chicken Street - was crowded with people when the bomb exploded on Saturday at about 12:15 local time (08:45 GMT).publive-image

Afghan security forces have struggled to fight the Taliban since the U.S. and NATO formally ended their combat mission in 2014.

On Dec. 28 a suicide bomber and other explosions at a Shiite cultural centre in Kabul killed at least 41 people in an attack claimed by the group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that may have been aimed at a pro-Iran news outlet based in the building.

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