(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) (Associated Press) 
 
 KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Latest on the militant assault on an Afghan government security compound in Kabul (all times local): 
 
 1:45 p.m. 
 
 Afghan officials have raised the death toll from a coordinated Taliban attack on a government security agency to 28. Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said Tuesday that the suicide attack was followed by an assault by armed militants. That number is expected to rise as some of the injured lose their battle, and more details emerge of what happened inside the heavily guarded military compound. "Security forces are in a fight with an unknown number of armed insurgents right now," Mohammad Afzel, a police officer at the site of the attack, told The Associated Press. A Public Health Ministry spokesman said a total of seven people were killed and 327 wounded in the coordinated assault on a government agency similar to the U.S. Secret Service, providing personal protection for high-ranking government officials. President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement condemning the attack and saying it, "clearly shows the enemy's defeat in face-to-face battle with Afghan security forces." Taliban announce start of spring offensive in Afghanistan Read more 
 
 While the spring fighting season normally heralds intensified attacks, winter was unusually violent, with sustained Taliban offensives around the country and several attacks on the capital, causing mostly civilian victims.
– Armed militants in Afghanistan staged a coordinated assault on a key government security agency in Kabul Tuesday morning, killing at least 28 people. The Taliban has claimed responsibility. The attack appears to have targeted an agency similar to the US Secret Service, providing personal protection for high-ranking government officials, the AP reports. Kabul Police Chief Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahimi told reporters that another 327 people were wounded in the assault, which began with a powerful suicide car bomb attack on the agency compound gates. A group of armed militants then entered the compound and waged a prolonged battle with government security forces, which officials say has now ended. Dozens of civilian apartment buildings, houses, and shops, as well as several government buildings, were damaged by the car bomb blast. Taliban insurgents have stepped up their attacks since announcing the start of their spring offensive last week, though the Guardian notes that the winter was unusually violent, with multiple attacks in the capital and elsewhere. President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement condemning the latest attack, saying it "clearly shows the enemy's defeat in face-to-face battle with Afghan security forces." (The Taliban claimed to have just missed John Kerry with a rocket attack during his recent visit to Kabul.)