Gunmen stormed a partially constructed intelligence agency training facility in Kabul on Monday, officials said, triggering intense fighting with police in the latest ISIS-claimed attack to hit the Afghan capital.
"Around 10:10 am, a group of armed attackers entered an under-construction building in (the) NDS training center in (the) Afshar area of Kabul," interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told AFP, referring to the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's spy agency.
"The fighting is ongoing and we have also launched our operation."
Nasrat Rahim, a deputy interior ministry spokesman, said the sound of large and small arms fire could be heard from the fighting.
"There are three attackers involved... the clearance operation is ongoing," said the spokesman, adding there was no immediate word on casualties.
"Initial reports indicate the gunmen are wearing police uniforms," he said.
Roads to the area were closed and dozens of police and intelligence officers were blocking access to the public as ambulances and reinforcements headed towards the site.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. "Two ISIS attackers raid the Afghan intelligence center in Kabul," the terrorist group’s Amaq news agency reported.
The Afghan capital has become one of the deadliest places in the war-torn country for civilians in recent months, as the resurgent Taliban and increasingly ISIS both step up their attacks, targeting security installations and mosques.
Security in Kabul has been ramped up since May 31 when a massive truck bomb ripped through the city's diplomatic quarter, killing about 150 and wounding around 400 people, mostly civilians.
Earlier, an Afghan official said a Taliban attack on Sunday killed a police officer and wounded three others in western Badghis province.
According to Gulam Haydar Sarwari, the province's deputy police chief, insurgents targeted a police security post in the remote district of Ab Kamari.
The slain officer was the district police commander, Sarwari added.
