The Taliban set off a huge truck bomb at a compound housing foreign workers in Kabul yesterday, a week after its extremist rival Islamic State killed 80 in the Afghan capital.
(Australian)-The truck exploded at about 1.30am (6am AEST) at Northgate, a large international guesthouse close to a military base next to Kabul’s international airport.
The initial blast was followed by smaller explosions before gunmen attempted to break into the compound.
One policeman was killed and four police and army personnel were wounded before three Taliban gunmen were shot dead.
“It woke me up, and it was five miles (8km) from where I live,” British security contractor Michael Wilson told The Australian. “That’s how big the initial blast was, and then there were four smaller blasts.”
He was at the scene soon after the explosion and said teams of international and Afghan special forces were sent in. Sporadic firing could be heard during the night.
Mr Wilson said the compound was well fortified and guests, probably “a couple of hundred”, would have scrambled into internal safety bunkers.