6 dead in suicide attack on Kabul military centre (2nd Lead)

As many as six people were killed and 16 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a military training centre here on Thursday, officials said.

The Islamic State (IS) terror group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The suicide attacker detonated himself at the entrance of Kabul's Marshal Fahim National Defence University when detected by security forces making an attempt to enter the building.

The blast took place when the cadets were leaving the hillside campus for their weekly two-day break, the Afghan media reported.

"The attacker wanted to enter the compound, but was identified and stopped by a soldier guarding the first entrance on the main road. But the attacker detonated his explosives," Kabul police spokesperson Firdaws Faramarz said.

The attack came after three days of talks between Taliban representatives and Afghan power brokers in Moscow ended without any significant progress in ending the 18-year-long conflict.

No representatives of the elected Kabul government, which the insurgents view as an American puppet, were present at the meeting. The members of a government-appointed peace council, however, attended the conference.

The Afghan IS affiliate said it had carried out the attack and claimed to have killed "50 military trainees".

--IANS

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