Suicide attack on Kabul hospital kills many

At least 19 people have been killed and 50 others wounded in an attack on a military hospital in Afghanistan.

The attack got under way when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the entrance of Sardar Mohammad Dawood Khan military hospital in capital Kabul on Tuesday.

Gunmen then broke into the hospital grounds, firing their weapons there, the Taliban said.

"Nineteen dead bodies and about 50 wounded people have been taken to hospitals in Kabul," a Health Ministry official who asked not to be named said.

Sayed Abdullah Ahmadi, the director of the nearby Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, said his facility had received three bodies and seven people who were injured in the blast.

Another nine injured were taken to the Afghanistan Emergency Hospital.

Taliban response

The attacks, confirmed by Taliban officials, have not yet been claimed by any group. 

"All the attackers are dead. The attack was initiated by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle who blew himself up at the entrance of the hospital," a Taliban media spokesperson said.

"Some attackers entered the hospital compound."

Two explosions targeted the hospital area, he had earlier said in a statement.

Qari Saeed Khosty, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said Taliban special forces had rushed to the scene to secure the area. 

Pictures shared on social media showed black smoke billowing into the air after the explosions, the first of which went off at around 0830 GMT (1 pm local). 

Roads close to the heavily fortified "Green Zone," where the buildings of several former Western embassies are located were closed off to traffic and Taliban guards scaled up searches. 

The explosions were the latest in a string of attacks in the weeks since the Taliban seized power in August, following a two-decade insurgency against the US-backed government.

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Daesh responsible?

The official Bakhtar news agency quoted witnesses saying a number of Daesh fighters entered the hospital and clashed with security forces.

Daesh, which has carried out a series of attacks on mosques and other targets since the Taliban's seizure of Kabul in August, mounted a complex attack on the 400-bed hospital in 2017, killing more than 30 people.

Daesh have claimed four mass casualty attacks since the Taliban takeover.

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