Major Taliban attack leaves scores wounded, killed in Afghanistan

PanARMENIAN.Net - A powerful Taliban car bomb followed by a fierce firefight left many people dead or wounded in Kabul Tuesday, April 19, the Afghan President said, a week after the insurgents launched their annual spring offensive, AFP reports.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack near government offices, which sent clouds of acrid smoke billowing in the sky and rattled windows several kilometres (miles) away.

The brazen assault in a densely packed neighborhood marks the first major Taliban attack in the Afghan capital since the insurgents announced the start of this year's fighting season, AFP says.

"(We) condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Puli Mahmood Khan neighbourhood of Kabul, as a result of which many of our countrymen were martyred and wounded," Ghani said in a statement without specifying the number.

The Afghan health ministry said at least 208 wounded people were rushed to hospital but did not specify any fatalities.

"Such cowardly terrorist attacks will not weaken the will and determination of Afghan security forces to fight against terrorism," Ghani said, according to AFP.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed their fighters had managed to enter the offices of the National Directorate of Security, the main spy agency.

Afghan officials did not confirm that claim but intense gun battles could be heard near the NDS compound. The Taliban are generally known to exaggerate battlefield claims.

The Taliban on Tuesday last week announced the start of their "spring offensive" even as the government in Kabul seeks to bring them back to the negotiating table to end the drawn-out conflict.

The Taliban warned they would "employ large-scale attacks on enemy positions across the country" during the offensive dubbed Operation Omari in honour of the movement's late founder Mullah Omar, whose death was announced last year.