Loud explosion shakes Kabul during rush hour

An explosion has rocked Afghanistan's capital Kabul during evening rush hour, with at least six civilians wounded.

A loud blast was heard on Monday evening in Kabul's Guzargah area, local journalists said.

The target appeared to be a mini-bus carrying civilian government employees of the census department.

Violence surges with peace talks on hold

If confirmed to be a bomb blast, this would be the latest in a series of attacks hitting the country recently.

On Saturday, two Afghan policemen were killed as three separate "sticky bombs" exploded in Kabul,

The policemen were killed when a sticky bomb attached to their pick-up truck exploded in a central district of Kabul, police spokesperson Ferdaws Faramarz told reporters.

A civilian was also wounded in the blast, he said.

Two security personnel were wounded in another similar bomb attack targeting a second police pick-up truck in a western district of Kabul, Faramarz said.

He said a third bomb also exploded in the city but caused no casualties.

In recent months, Kabul and several other provinces of Afghanistan have been rocked by deadly violence, including bombings, rocket attacks and targeted killings.

Several of these attacks, especially in Kabul, have been claimed by the Daesh group.

Journalists, politicians and rights activists have increasingly come under targeted attacks as violence surges in Afghanistan, despite peace talks between the government and the Taliban.

On December 24, gunmen on a motorbike shot dead women's rights activist Freshta Kohistani and her brother north of Afghanistan's capital.

Kohistani, 29, was the second activist to be killed in two days after a prominent pro-democracy advocate was gunned down in Kabul.

Peace talks that started on September 12 in the Qatari capital Doha are currently on a break until early January.

READ MORE: Afghan women's rights activist Freshta Kohistani shot dead