40 Killed In Attack On Kabul News Agency

Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry says at least 40 people have been killed and 30 wounded by a suicide bomber who attacked a news agency in Kabul.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said the suicide bomber blew himself up inside the building on the west side of the Afghan capital.

Rahimi said there were two other explosions on the street outside of the building as people were gathering to help those injured by the first blast.

The explosions were the latest in a series of attacks targeting Afghan media.

The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee and the global human rights group Amnesty International have called on the government to take preventive measure to protect media in Afghanistan.

It says there has been a surge of attacks against journalists during 2017 with at least 73 cases reported, an increase of 35 percent compared with 2016.

In May, Islamic State (IS) militants claimed an attack targeting an Afghan state television building in Jalalabad that killed six people.

IS extremists also claimed responsibility for an attack in November by militants disguised as police who stormed the Kabul compound of Shamshad TV, killing a security guard and wounding two dozen people.

President Ashraf Ghani pledged after the November attack that his government would take “serious measures” to protect journalists.

Source AFP – AP