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The deadly Taliban attack, involving suicide bombing and gunshots in Kabul on Tuesday, which claimed dozens of lives and injured hundreds of others, was widely condemned.
Taking place in Pul-e-Mahmood Khan area, next to the Presidential Palace, Defense Ministry and an office of the country' s national intelligence agency the National Directorate for Security (NDS) at 08:50 a.m. local time , the incident killed 28 people, mostly civilians.
"An improvised explosive device was detonated near a restaurant in Shirpoor locality at around evening. But caused no loss of lives or injuries as no passerby was near the site when the blast occurred," a security source told Xinhua.
The Afghan security forces have beefed up security operations against militants recently as spring and summer, known as the fighting season, is drawing near in the country.
"The latest information says that 28 people were killed in the terrorist attack in Kabul today," Kabul police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told reporters at the site of the blast.
However, the official couldn't provide more details.
Meanwhile, a security official on condition of anonymity, said, "The target of the attack was a compound jointly running by a sub office of National Directorate of Security and Government VIP Protection Directorate of Presidential Palace."
Security personnel however killed the attackers after around two hours of gun battle.
NDS has yet to make comment.
Zabihullah Majahid, who claims to speak for the Taliban, in contact with media, claimed of responsibility, saying a group of suicide bombers targeted an office of intelligence agency inflicting huge casualties.
The Public Health Ministry, in a statement released here Tuesday afternoon, confirmed that 15 dead bodies and 327 injured persons including women and children had been taken to hospitals for medical treatment.
The number of casualties may go up, according to locals, as many families prefer not to take their dead bodies to hospitals.
The deadly offensive has withdrawn wide condemnation at home and abroad.
Both the Afghan president Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and chief executive Abdullah Abdullah as well as former president Hamid Karzai in statements described the attack as "a coward terrorist act" and condemned it in other strongest terms.
The NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan also denounced the terrorist attack in Kabul and in a statement released here said, "Today's attack shows the insurgents are unable to meet Afghan forces on the battlefield and must resort to these terrorist attacks."
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in a statement released here condemned the bloody terrorist attack here in Kabul and said, "UNAMA reiterates its call for the Taliban to immediately cease all attacks in civilian-populated areas."
U.S. embassy to Afghanistan has also joined the condemnation of the terror attack and said, "The U.S. embassy condemns this senseless act of violence."
Pakistan and India, according to media reports, have also condemned the terrorist attack in Kabul in its strongest term.
