KABUL — The Taliban are claiming responsibility for deadly suicide attacks that killed at least 10 people in the heart of Kabul.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said today that five suicide bombers conducted the attacks on two buildings used by foreigners.
Police officer Gulam Mustafa at the scene said authorities believe two residential hotels, or guesthouses, used by foreign workers in Afghanistan were the targets of the attacks.
Witnesses said one explosion created a crater about 3 feet wide in front of a guesthouse, which was destroyed. Another guesthouse was heavily damaged, and the windows of the hotel were blown out.
At least two Afghan policemen were among those killed in the blasts, near the Kabul City Center, a nine-story shopping area that includes the Safi Landmark Hotel, said Abdul Ghafor Sayedzada, a top investigator for the Kabul police.
Gen. Ahmad Zia Yaftali, the chief of the Afghan Defense Ministry’s health department, said 10 people had been killed. He said foreigners were among the dead, but he did not know how many or their nationalities.
Sayed Kabir Amiry, director of the hospitals in the Afghan capital, said more than 32 people were wounded.
On Thursday, Afghan officials hoisted the black, red and green national flag over the center of the one-time Taliban stronghold of Marjah, symbolically claiming control after a major American-led military offensive.
While the city has emerged from the worst of the fighting, there were reports of scattered battles to the north of Marjah, and American and Afghan troops continued to pursue Taliban militants.
Residents who fled began to return, and some markets reopened Thursday. But there is little food because the major road into Marjah is still mined, and the city remains a dangerous labyrinth of buried bombs, booby traps and pockets of insurgents.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
