Bomb blast targets office of National Directorate of Security in central Kabul

A massive blast here on Thursday targeted the office of National Directorate of Security located in the centre of the Afghan capital.

Quoting Afghan Ministry of Interior spokesman, Nusrat Rahimi, Tolo News reported that the blast took place in Sash Darak area around 10:10 a.m. (local time).

The Shash Darak is a neighbourhood located in District 2 of Kabul and includes some of the important buildings, including the headquarters of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, the Afghan Defence Ministry, the CIA's Afghan station and the National Directorate of Security office.

The National Directorate of Security serves as the primary domestic and foreign intelligence agency of Afghanistan, formed in 2002, and is considered the successor to KHAD, which was the previous intelligence organization before the Afghan Civil War in 1996-2001.

Eyewitnesses said the blast at NDS checkpoint in Sashdarak area in Kabul was a car bomb.

However, no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The blast has come as US envoy on Afghan peace reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, have been meeting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and briefing him on the agreement that was reached 'in principle' with the Taliban following the completion of the ninth round of talks in Doha to end the nearly two-decades-old war.

The Afghan government was until now shut out of the negotiations as the Taliban calls it a "puppet" of the US.