Suicide Bomber Shot Dead Outside Kabul Passport Office

A suicide bomber was shot dead Thursday, Dec. 23, at the gate of a passport office in the Afghan capital Kabul, a government spokesman said. Several people were injured after a car bomb exploded outside the office, according to unconfirmed reports.

The attacker was trying to enter the passport office premises when police officers identified him as a would-be suicide bomber.

"He was identified and killed at a checkpoint at the entrance," Mobin Khan, spokesman for Kabul police, told AFP.

A Taliban member who was a witness reported multiple people were injured after the car bomb exploded forcing the Taliban security forces to lock the buildings and streets around the area.

The blast comes days after the Taliban announced that Thursday would be set aside exclusively for its members to apply for passports.

The place was crowded with Taliban fighters who had gathered at the passport office from dawn.

"Issuing passports to the Taliban members was canceled due to overcrowding," said Qari Shafiullah Tassal, a spokesman for the office.

Several attacks targeting Taliban fighters have been reported from the capital after they returned to power on Aug. 15. The local chapter of the Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.

At least 25 people were killed and more than 50 wounded after gunmen attacked a 400-bed military hospital in Afghanistan after two heavy explosions at the site in central Kabul on Nov. 2.

The attack began when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the entrance of the Daoud Khan Military hospital.

Following the explosion, a group of Islamic State gunmen broke into the hospital grounds and opened fire.

“Twenty-five dead bodies and about 50 wounded people have been taken to hospitals in Kabul,” a health ministry official, who did not wish to be named, told AFP.

All gunmen were killed within 15 minutes, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

IS Khorasan (ISIS-K), an ISIS affiliate that operates in central Asia, had claimed responsibility for the attack.

After the hardline Islamic group returned to power, the authorities stopped issuing passports citing staff issues, a lack of supplies, and faulty equipment.

The service was restarted on Sunday and hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been thronging outside the passport office in a desperate bid to flee a growing humanitarian crisis in the country.