Explosions, gunfire at Kabul Military Hospital
The Afghan capital, Kabul, has been rocked by powerful blasts. Two loud blasts erupted outside the 400-bed Sardar Dawood Hospital, after which gunfire erupted at the military hospital.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed the blasts, saying the first blast took place in front of Sardar Dawood Khan Hospital, while the second took place nearby.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed that several people had been killed in the blasts, but did not give an exact number. An eyewitness told the BBC that fighting was ongoing inside the hospital.
According to unconfirmed reports, at least 15 people were killed and several others injured in the blasts.
Video footage and photos from Kabul show clouds of smoke in the air over Kabul and the sound of gunfire.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Afghanistan's Bakhtar News Agency reported, citing eyewitnesses, that several so-called Islamic State attackers had entered the hospital and were fighting security forces.
A doctor told AFP he had been sent to a safe room. "I can still hear gunshots in the hospital building," the doctor told AFP. I think the attackers are going to one room after another. "
The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan since the US withdrew from the country. IS Khorasan, a local branch of the so-called Islamic State extremist organization, has begun targeting the Taliban and civilians.
A bomb blast at Kabul airport in August this year killed 150 people, including 13 US soldiers.
Sardar Dawood Hospital has been targeted in the past as well. An attack on Dawood Hospital in 2017 killed 30 people and injured 50. The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.