Security beefed up in Kabul after multiple bomb attacks (Update)

Security has been beefed up in Afghan capital Kabul after a series of bomb attacks that left at least 40 people dead.

According to the BBC, the nationalities of the victims have not released.

Although the UN has alleged that the attacks are likely to be the product of a Taliban power struggle, the latter has accepted its involvement in the attack on the police academy but denied its role in the other.

A Nato member and eight contractors were killed in the first attack that took place near an army base in the neighbourhood of Shah Shaheed when a truck packed with explosives blew up.

In less than 24 hours, at least 20 Afghan cadets died when a suicide attacker dressed in police uniform blew himself up at the entrance of Kabul Police Academy.

The blasts, which took place last night, are the first major militant assaults on Kabul since the announcement of Taliban chief Mullah Omar's death.