Multiple casualties in suicide attack near Afghan ministry: police

Casualties were reported after a suicide attacker blew himself up in front of a government ministry in Kabul on Sunday, in the latest deadly violence in Afghanistan.

At least 7 people were killed or wounded in the attack, police said.

The explosion happened at the rural rehabilitation and development ministry around 4:30 pm, police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai told AFP.

That is the time when most employees would have been going home.

It is the second time in as many months that the ministry has been targeted by militants.

On June 11 a suicide bomber blew himself up as ministry workers queued for an early bus home during the holy month of Ramadan, killing at least 13 people and wounding 31.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that attack.

The latest suicide bombing came just hours after a UN report showed the number of Afghan civilians killed in the country's long-running conflict hit a record high in the first six months of 2018, with militant attacks and suicide bombs leading the causes of death.

The toll of 1,692 fatalities was one percent more than a year earlier and the highest for the period since the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) began keeping records in 2009.

Suicide bombs and "complex" attacks that involve several militants accounted for 1,413 casualties - 427 deaths and 986 injuries - up 22 percent from a year earlier.

If that trend continues, the figure will top the 2017 full-year record of nearly 2,300 casualties.

UNAMA attributed 52 percent of suicide and complex attacks to the Islamic State group, mainly in Kabul and Nangarhar where the group established a stronghold after emerging in Afghanistan in 2014.

The Taliban was responsible for 40 percent of such attacks.

While the Taliban is Afghanistan's largest militant group and holds or contests more territory than any other, IS has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to carry out devastating attacks in urban areas.