At least five people have been killed and 10 wounded in a suicide bomb blast near government offices in the heart of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, according to police.

The incident on Wednesday happened when a suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives about 100m from the gate of the presidential palace and close to where the Afghan finance ministry is located.

Al Jazeera's Qais Azimy, reporting from Kabul, said both the location and the timing of the attack were very important.

"It happened in District N.2 - almost at the heart of Kabul and one of its safest parts," Azimy said.

"It also happened at the end of the working day, when most of the government employees working in the presidential palace and the finance ministry were rushing to go to their homes."

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group claimed responsibility for the attack in an online post.

Azimy said ISIL's emergence in Afghanistan and its ability to launch such attacks raised further concerns in a country already struggling to deal with an offensive by the Taliban armed group.

"The people of Kabul and Afghanistan are now more worried because the Afghan security forces are really having a hard time to fight the Taliban, and no one is looking forward for a new group to emerge in this country," Azimy said.

READ MORE: ISIL expands in Afghan-Pakistan areas, widening attacks

ISIL's offshoot in Afghanistan in Pakistan, known as the so-called Khorasan Province, was created in 2015.

The Afghan Taliban, who are trying to overthrow the US-backed government in Kabul, is opposed to it and the two have clashed as they seek to expand territory and influence.

US officials say intelligence suggests ISIL is based overwhelmingly in Nangarhar and neighbouring Kunar province.

Estimates of its strength in Afghanistan vary. US officials have said they believe its has only 700 fighters but Afghan officials estimate it has about 1,500. </s> ISLAMABAD - Officials in Afghanistan say a suicide bomb attack Friday targeted a foreign military convoy in Kabul, killing at least four Afghan civilians and wounding four American soldiers.

The U.S. military confirmed the attack in the Afghan capital and said the service members received “minor injuries”. It did not give further details.

The Taliban took responsibility for the bombing on a busy road linking Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad, saying a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car near the foreign military convoy.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said several passerby were also among those injured.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid citing initial information claimed the powerful explosion destroyed two military vehicles and killed ten “invaders”, a term insurgents use for U.S.-led NATO forces in the country. The insurgent group’s claims are often inflated.

Kabul, Afghanistan

This was the second bomb attack in as many days in the Afghan capital.

On Thursday, an Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance gate of an Afghan military academy and training center in Kabul. That blast killed six security forces and wounded 12 others. Afghan officials said four civilians were also among those injured.

Meanwhile, fierce clashes were continuing in the northwestern province of Badghis where the Taliban fighters have taken control of the embattled strategic Bala Murghab district during overnight fighting with Afghan forces.

Azai Akazai, who represents the province in the Afghan parliament, confirmed the insurgent advances while talking to VOA and said overnight clashes killed around a dozen government forces.

The Taliban assault forced around 250 Afghan forces to retreat to a nearby Afghan military base, the lawmaker added.

The insurgent violence comes amid peace negations between U.S. and Taliban officials.

The dialogue has lately slowed down over Taliban’s insistence it will not cease hostilities and engage in peace talks with the Afghan government until all foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan.

The insurgent group dismisses the Kabul administration as a puppet installed by “American invaders”.

The Taliban, however, has engaged in informal discussions with Afghan opposition politicians and civil society groups. The latest round of such talks took place in Moscow this week.

A joint statement issued after the meeting on Thursday, however, offered no substantial outcome on issues such as a Taliban cease-fire during upcoming Muslim festival of Eid. </s> Officials in Afghanistan say a suicide bomb attack Friday targeted a foreign military convoy in Kabul, killing at least four Afghan civilians and wounding four American soldiers.

The U.S. military confirmed the attack in the Afghan capital and said the service members received “minor injuries”. It did not give further details.

The Taliban took responsibility for the bombing on a busy road linking Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad, saying a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car near the foreign military convoy.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said several passerby were also among those injured.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid citing initial information claimed the powerful explosion destroyed two military vehicles and killed ten “invaders”, a term insurgents use for U.S.-led NATO forces in the country. The insurgent group’s claims are often inflated.

This was the second bomb attack in as many days in the Afghan capital.

On Thursday, an Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance gate of an Afghan military academy and training center in Kabul. That blast killed six security forces and wounded 12 others. Afghan officials said four civilians were also among those injured.

Meanwhile, fierce clashes were continuing in the northwestern province of Badghis where the Taliban fighters have taken control of the embattled strategic Bala Murghab district during overnight fighting with Afghan forces.

Azai Akazai, who represents the province in the Afghan parliament, confirmed the insurgent advances while talking to VOA and said overnight clashes killed around a dozen government forces.

The Taliban assault forced around 250 Afghan forces to retreat to a nearby Afghan military base, the lawmaker added.

The insurgent violence comes amid peace negations between U.S. and Taliban officials.

The dialogue has lately slowed down over Taliban’s insistence it will not cease hostilities and engage in peace talks with the Afghan government until all foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan.

The insurgent group dismisses the Kabul administration as a puppet installed by “American invaders”.

The Taliban, however, has engaged in informal discussions with Afghan opposition politicians and civil society groups. The latest round of such talks took place in Moscow this week.

A joint statement issued after the meeting on Thursday, however, offered no substantial outcome on issues such as a Taliban cease-fire during upcoming Muslim festival of Eid. </s> The leader of ISIL in Afghanistan was killed in air strikes in eastern Nangarhar province, the fourth head of the armed group to die since it emerged in the country in recent years.

Abu Saad Erhabi and 10 other Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) members died in a joint operation with coalition forces on Saturday night, the National Directorate of Security said in a statement on Sunday.

"The emir of Daesh in Afghanistan - along with 10 others - was killed," it said, using the armed group's Arabic acronym.

The air attacks on a village in Khugyani district, near the border with Pakistan, also destroyed a large number of weapons, explosives, and ammunition, the agency said.

US forces in Afghanistan said they conducted an air raid in the location described by Afghan officials, which "targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organisation".

Erhabi was the fourth ISIL leader killed in Afghanistan since the group emerged there in early 2015. Erhabi succeeded Abu Sayed who was killed in a US drone attack in early July.

ISIL has a relatively small but potent presence in Afghanistan, mainly in Nangarhar - the birthplace of the group's Afghan branch - but more recently in the northern province of Jowzjan where it is fighting for control of smuggling routes into neighbouring Turkmenistan.

Hours before Saturday's air raids, the group claimed a deadly suicide attack that appeared to target a sit-in protest outside an election commission office in the city of Jalalabad. Two people were killed.

The bombings followed a number of attacks claimed by ISIL in recent weeks, including assaults on several government installations in Kabul and a bombing at a school in a Shia area of the capital that killed at least 37 people.

The group, however, has suffered repeated setbacks amid a bloody turf war with the much larger Taliban. Estimates of ISIL's numbers in the country run as high as 2,000.

More than 150 ISIL fighters surrendered to Afghan forces in Jowzjan on August 1, a move troops and the Taliban hailed as the end of the group's foothold in the north of the country.

ISIL in Afghanistan is also known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan. </s> Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on Wednesday near the Afghan Defence Ministry that killed at least three people.

At least one civilian and two members of the Afghan security forces were killed, a ministry spokesman said, adding that the target appeared to be a police post near military headquarters.

A police officer at the scene told Reuters the attack appeared to have been carried out by a suicide bomber on foot. A Reuters witness reported seeing several damaged cars, with possible injuries to the occupants.

Last month, Islamic State fighters killed nearly 50 people when then stormed the main military hospital in Kabul.

Islamic State’s offshoot in Afghanistan, known as the Sunni jihadist group’s so-called Khorasan Province, is suspected of carrying out several attacks on minority Shi’ite Muslim targets. U.S. officials say intelligence suggests Islamic State is based overwhelmingly in Nangarhar and neighbouring Kunar province.

Estimates of its strength in Afghanistan vary. US officials have said they believe the movement has only 700 fighters but Afghan officials estimate it has about 1,500.

The Afghan Taliban, who are trying to overthrow the US-backed government in Kabul, are fiercely opposed to Islamic State and the two have clashed as they seek to expand territory and influence. </s> Updated at 6:50 a.m. ET

Kabul is in lockdown after multiple explosions rocked the Afghan capital on Wednesday, including two apparent suicide bomb attacks on police stations.

The Interior Ministry confirmed to Reuters that suicide bombers attacked a police station in Shar-e-Naw in central Kabul — an area near foreign embassies and government offices.

Najib Danish, a spokesman for the ministry, said sporadic gunfire was exchanged at the site as part of a "cleanup operation."

The first explosion occurred around noon local time near a police station in western Kabul's Dasht-e-Barchi district, an area that is home to many people belonging to the mainly Shia Hazara community, said police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai.

The blasts came in rapid succession, suggesting a coordinated militant attack.

One journalist shared a gruesome image on a WhatsApp reporters group showing what appeared to be a suicide bomber who had detonated his explosives, but only killed himself.

Reporters said they heard ambulances rushing toward the targeted police stations, but it was unclear how many casualties resulted from the attacks.

Later, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.

In recent months, Afghanistan has seen an upsurge in suicide bombings claimed by ISIS or the Taliban.

The most recent blasts come just nine days after a series of attacks in Afghanistan killed more than 30 people, including 10 journalists.

Also in April, a suicide bomber hit a voting center in the capital, killing at least 57 people. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

In another attack in March, IS claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a police checkpoint in Kabul that killed nine people wounded 18.

The Associated Press on Wednesday quotes officials as saying the Taliban advanced on a district compound in Faryab province, with one reporting that its fighters had captured the region, while another said fighting was ongoing.

"The Taliban have captured several districts in different parts of the country from Afghan security forces since 2014, when the U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission and shifted to a supporting role," the AP says. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan — A coordinated double suicide bombing by the Islamic State group hit central Kabul on Monday morning, killing at least 25 people, including eight journalists, officials said. An AFP photographer and a cameraman for a local TV station were among the fatalities, the police said.

At least 45 people were wounded in the twin attacks, according to Kabul police spokesman, Hashmat Stanekzai, who also added that four policemen were among those killed.

The attack was the latest in a relentless string of deadly large-scale bombings and assaults that have struck Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan so far this year. And as the Afghan capital reeled from Monday’s assault, a suicide car bombing a few hours later in the southern province of Kandahar killed 11 children, a police spokesman said.

In a statement posted on an IS-affiliated website, the Islamic State group said two of its martyrdom seekers carried out the double Kabul bombings, targeting the headquarters of the “renegade” Afghan intelligence services.

The blasts took place in the central Shash Darak area, home to NATO headquarters and a number of embassies and foreign offices — as well as the Afghan intelligence service.

Stanekzai, the police spokesman, said the first suicide bomber was on a motor bike. The second explosion was meant to hit those rushing to the scene of the attack to help the victims of the first blast, he added.

The second attacker was on foot, in a crowd of reporters that had rushed to the scene of the first attack, pretending to be one of the media, the spokesman said. The bomber then detonated his explosives while still among the reporters, Stanekzai said, adding that the attacker obviously intentionally targeted the journalists.

Agence France-Presse said the news agency’s chief photographer in Kabul, Shah Marai, was among those killed. AFP said Marai died in a blast that struck journalists who had rushed to the scene of the earlier suicide attack .

A local media watchdog, the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee, said eight Afghan journalists were killed and six were wounded. The group strongly condemned all attacks against journalists.

Sediqullah Tawhidi, an official form the committee, said a cameraman form the local TOLO TV also was among those killed. Police officer Jan Agha said all the journalists died in the second blast, which also wounded two police officers.

Jawed Ghulam Sakhi, a 28-year-old a taxi driver said “when the explosion happened, everywhere was covered with dust and fire, it was so horrific scene” with bodies and body parts “thrown about on the street and the pavement.”

“I saw journalists covered with blood, this time they targeted the media,” Sakhi added.

Masouda, a young woman who was with her husband nearby, assailed the authorities. Her husband was wounded and was taken to the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital.

“I don’t know who is responsible for all these attacks, every day we lose our loved ones and no one in this government is taking responsibility for the killing of these innocent people,” she said.

Afghan President Asharf Ghani strongly condemned the attacks. The presidential palace released a statement saying that attacks targeting innocent civilians, worshippers inside the mosques, national and democratic processes, reporters and freedom of speech all are war crimes.

The U.S. Embassy also condemned the “savage bombings” in Kabul and reiterated its support for the Afghan people and Ghani’s government in their fight against terrorism.”

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of all the victims, including a number of brave journalists among the dead and injured,” it said, adding that “where media are in danger, all other human rights are under greater threat.”

Kabul chief of police Dawood Amin said the area that was hit was quickly sealed off and authorities were investigating. Mohammad Mousa Zahir, director of Wazir Akbarkhan Hospital, said several people suffering injuries from the blasts were being treated at the hospital.

In its claim of responsibility, the Afghan affiliate of IS, known as Khorasan Province, said the first martyrdom seeker in the attack detonated his explosive vest near the intelligence service in central Kabul, forcing its members to head to the area of the explosion. The statement said the second attacker detonated his explosive vest after that. The statement, which exaggerated the overall death toll as militant claims often do, did not say that journalists were specifically targeted but exaggerated the attacks’ death toll.

In the Kandahar attack, an Afghan official said a suicide bomber targeted a NATO convoy in the district of Daman but killed 11 children from a religious school located by the roadside from where the explosion occurred.

Matiullah Helal, deputy spokesman for the provincial police chief, said 16 people were also wounded, including five NATO soldiers, nine civilians and two policemen. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Kandahar bombing and no comment from NATO.

The children from the madrasa had gathered around the NATO convoy for fun when the bomber struck, said Abdul Rahim Ayubi, a lawmaker from Kandahar.

The local IS affiliate and the more firmly established Taliban carry out regular attacks around the country, as well as in Kabul, with the Taliban usually targeting the government and security forces and IS targeting members of the country’s the Shiite minority, whom the affiliate perceives as apostates.

The relentless assaults underscore the struggles that Afghan security forces have faced to reign in the militant groups since the United States and NATO concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014. Both groups want to establish strict Islamic rule in Afghanistan.

Last week, an Islamic State suicide bomber attacked a voter registration center in Kabul, killing 60 people and wounding at least 130 others. There were 22 women and eight children among the fatalities.

And the month before, an IS suicide bomber targeted a Shiite shrine in Kabul where people had gathered celebrating the Persian new year. That attack killed 31 people and wounded 65 others. </s> At least one person has been killed and four others wounded in a suicide bombing in the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to government officials.

The explosion took place on Friday near a vehicle belonging to foreign workers in the eastern part of the city, Najib Danish, a spokesperson for the interior ministry, said.

Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley, reporting from Kabul, said Afghanistan’s interior ministry confirmed the attack was a suicide bombing against “foreign forces”.

“We understand that to be NATO employees who were travelling in convoy,” Birtley said.

Local media reports say one person has been killed, and nine others wounded, in the attack, Birtley added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion.

The Afghan capital has seen a spate of deadly attacks carried out by the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, whose affiliate in Afghanistan has grown in recent years.

In January, Taliban claimed responsibility for two separate attacks that killed nearly 130 people.

The blast comes two days after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered to recognise the Taliban as a legitimate political group, as part of a proposed process he said could lead to talks aimed at ending more than 16 years of war.

On Thursday, Taliban fighters killed at least six policemen in an attack at a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, officials said. </s> The Latest: Toll from Kabul bombing climbs to 57 dead

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Latest on the violence in Afghanistan (all times local):

Afghan officials say the toll from a suicide bombing in Kabul claimed by the Islamic State group has risen to 57 dead and 119 wounded.

Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majro confirmed the toll of Sunday's attack, in which the bomber targeted a voter registration center in the capital. IS claimed the attack, saying it targeted Shiite "apostates."

Both IS and the more well-established Taliban have stepped up attacks across Afghanistan in recent years.

Afghan officials say the toll from a suicide bombing in Kabul claimed by the Islamic State group has risen to 48 dead and 112 wounded.

Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majro confirmed the toll from Sunday's attack, in which the bomber targeted a voter registration center in the capital. IS claimed the attack, saying it targeted Shiite "apostates."

Both IS and the more well-established Taliban have stepped up attacks across Afghanistan in recent years.

The U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, shifting to a focus on counterterrorism, training and support.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the Afghan capital that killed more than 30 people and wounded dozens.

The group claimed Sunday's attack in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency, saying it had targeted Shiite "apostates."

Afghan officials say a suicide bomber targeted a crowd of people gathered at a voter registration center in Kabul.

The extremist group is opposed to democratic elections.

An Afghan official says that at least five people were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the northern Baghlan province.

Zabihullah Shuja, spokesman for the provincial police chief, says four other people were wounded in Sunday's blast in Puli Khomri, the capital of the province.

The Taliban routinely target security forces and government officials with roadside bombs, which often end up killing civilians.

Afghan officials say the toll from a suicide bombing in Kabul that targeted a voter registration center has climbed to at least 31 killed and 54 wounded.

Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majro confirmed the toll from Sunday's attack, originally placed at four dead and 15 wounded.

The Taliban denied involvement in the attack, which indicates it may have been carried out by an Islamic State affiliate.

Afghan officials say the toll from a suicide bombing in Kabul has climbed to at least 12 killed and 57 wounded.

Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majro said the toll from Sunday's attack, originally placed at four dead and 15 wounded, could climb further.

The suicide bomber targeted a crowd that had gathered to pick up national identification cards at a voter registration center in the capital.

The Taliban denied involvement in the attack, which indicates it may have been carried out by an Islamic State affiliate.

Afghan officials say a suicide bomber has attacked a voter registration center in the capital, killing at least four people.

Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majro says another 15 people were wounded in Sunday's attack. Kabul police spokesman Akmal Ahmadzai confirmed the location of the attack.

No one immediately claimed responsibility. The Taliban and a local Islamic State affiliate both view Afghanistan's government and democratic elections as illegitimate.
A suicide bombing near a military training center in the Afghan capital city of Kabul kills 6 people and leaves 6 others injured. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province claims responsibility (Press TV)