19 killed in Kabul suicide blast

A Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Kabul police chief says 19 people were killed and 27 were wounded in a suicide bombing in a Shiite area of the Afghan capital.

Khalid Zadran, the spokesman, says the explosion in the Dashti Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul took place on Friday morning. The area is populated mostly by members of Afghanistan's minority Shiite community.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Islamic State group the chief rival of the Taliban since their takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 has in the past targeted the Hazara community.

A week ago, a similar blast in Kabul claimed seven lives and injured 41 others.

(input from agencies)