Suicide blast rocks Kabul as 11 killed and 8 others wounded

Eleven people were killed and eight civilians wounded after assailants armed with gun, grenades and suicide bomb jackets stormed an 18-story government office building in the center of the capital of Afghanistan on Saturday, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The killed included four civilians, three security force members and four attackers, Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs said in a statement.

Wahidullah Mayar, spokesman for the Public Health Ministry, said the wounded people were evacuated to hospitals. Three are women.

The attack on the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, or MCIT, started at around midday and ended after a five-hour exchange of gunfire and explosions.

"The information that we have is four attackers have placed themselves near the communication ministry and are engaged in gunbattles with the Afghan security forces," Amanduddin Shariati, a security official in Kabul told Agence France-Presse.

By about 5 pm local time, the interior ministry declared the assault over.

"Operations finished. All suicide bombers killed & more than 2000 civilians staff rescued," the ministry said on Twitter.

Panicked workers inside the 18-story building, believed to be Kabul's tallest, moved up to the top floor as gunmen and Afghan security officials battled lower down.

One woman said she had been in a group of about 30 people on the 10th floor when the assault started, then was told to move up to the 18th floor as gunfire increased. They were all eventually rescued by commandos.

"Women were screaming and children of the kindergarten were the first to be evacuated," the woman, who did not want to be named, told AFP.

Three suspected men were also arrested by the elite troops from around the site of the attack.

The incident also caused panic among the people and all the shops were closed down following the attack in the main business hub of the city.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Both Taliban militants and the Islamic State group are active in eastern Afghanistan and have previously claimed attacks in Kabul.

The Taliban denied involvement.

The attack came a day after Afghan-to-Afghan peace talks in Qatar were canceled. It would have marked the first time that Taliban and Kabul government officials sat together to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan and a withdrawal of US troops, The Associated Press reported.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the attack in a statement, saying the enemies of Afghanistan, by targeting civil servants, are trying to create terror among the people.

An employee of the MCIT who was rescued, Hamid Popalzai, said "an explosion happened and then we heard the sound of gunfire and more explosions". He added that a large number of people were inside the ministry, both women and men, when the attack started.

Live footage on local TV showed government employees fleeing neighboring buildings of the Information and Culture ministries, with some climbing out windows.

Xinhua