Suicide blast kills 1, wounds 4 in Kabul
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber on foot killed a security guard and wounded four civilians outside a hospital in northern Kabul on Thursday, officials said, while roadside bombs killed five Afghan soldiers elsewhere in the country.
The attacker struck a compound belonging to the minority Ismaili community, who make up a branch of Shiite Islam. The compound houses a cultural center, library and a hospital.
Sayed Gul Agha Hashimi, the head of the Kabul Criminal Investigation Department, initially said the hospital was the target of the attack.
It was unclear why the compound was targeted.
Shortly after the blast, blood was spattered on nearby windows and broken glass was scattered on the ground.
Hashimi said that in addition to the bomber, a security guard was killed and that police were searching the hospital.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which was condemned by Afghanistan's Ministry of the Interior.
The ministry called the security guard — who died trying to tackle the bomber — a hero.
Also Thursday, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said that five soldiers had died in two separate roadside bomb incidents over the past 24 hours.
Three soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southwestern Nimruz Province and two were killed in southern Helmand Province, the ministry said. It did not provide further details.
