KABUL (AFP) – Three unidentified militants detonated a car bomb Friday and tried to storm the headquarters of an Afghan party headed by veteran politician Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, officials said.
Ghairat Baheer, an official with the Hizb-e-Islami party, said two attackers were killed as they tried to enter the Kabul building — which also houses a mosque — and a third escaped.
“The car detonated outside, so there was little damage,” he said.
Officials said Hekmatyar — a politician who served as prime minister in the 1990s — was inside at the time, but was unhurt.
Obaidullah Muddabir, a senior district police officer, confirmed two attackers had been killed, but said he believed the third had been captured.
“I am outside the compound... the situation is under control,” he said.
“The guards at Hizb-e-Islami office told us that there were three attackers. They killed two while one was injured before they reached the target.”
Hekmatyar is regarded as a political survivor in Afghanistan, having fought against the Soviet occupation, the Taliban’s first stint in power, and the Western-backed government that ruled until August last year.
The attack comes two days after at least 16 people were killed, mostly children, and dozens of others injured in a powerful explosion at a religious school in northern Afghanistan’s city of Aybak, the capital of Samangan province.
A doctor in Aybak, about 200 kilometers north of the capital Kabul, told AFP that most of the dead and wounded on Wednesday were children and ordinary people.
A provincial official also confirmed the explosion at al-Jahad school, but did not provide accurate statistics on the number of casualties.
The Taliban say 10 students were killed and “many others” were wounded. Local officials said the blast was carried out during the afternoon prayer.
Abdul Nafay Takor, the spokesman of the Afghan Interior Ministry, wrote in a tweet that security authorities were investigating the various aspects of the incident and working to identify the perpetrators.