A suicide bomber blew himself up on a busy shopping street near the US embassy in central Kabul Tuesday, killing four people and injuring several others, officials said.
It was the latest in a series of deadly attacks to hit the Afghan capital, and comes three months after a massive truck bomb ripped through the same area, killing about 150 people.
Najib Danish, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s interior ministry, told AFP the explosion happened outside a private bank.
The blast happened Tuesday morning atpected to be collecting their salaries ahead of this week’s Eid holiday.
Kabul Bank, the private institution hit by the blast, usually pays the salaries of security forces personnel and government employees.
Images broadcast on Afghan television showed the bank’s mangled exterior.
Waheed Majroh, a health ministry spokesman, said one dead body and eight wounded people had been brought to Kabul hospitals so far.
The blast occurred on a street lined with shops and banks leading to Massoud Square, near the United States embassy and Kabul’s diplomatic area.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Taliban insurgents are currently at the peak of their summer fighting season, and have launched several deadly assaults around the country in recent weeks.
Since NATO forces ended their more than a decade-long combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, Afghan troops and police have struggled to beat back the resurgent Taliban, while facing the growing menace of the Islamic State group.
