Twin bombings near Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry kill 5

Smoke was seen rising from the site where gunmen were still holed up. Security forces had rescued more than 30 people who were trapped inside the building, he told journalists. An hour before midnight on Monday, a suicide vehicle bomber targe.

The insurgents on Monday night launched their attack on the NGO.

Afghan soldiers inspects the site of suicide attack In Kabul near Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry, Monday, Sept. 5, 2016.

Gunfire erupted when armed men stormed the building of the humanitarian organisation Care in the Shar-e-Naw area following a auto bomb explosion.

Gunmen stormed the headquarters of an global charity in the heart of Kabul and then battled police in an 11-hour standoff before being killed Tuesday morning, the Afghan government said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter the defence ministry was the object of the first attack, while police were targeted in the second. “Unfortunately one civilian has been killed and six others wounded”, Sediqqi said. A Kabul police chief was killed in the attack.

Pakistan strongly condemned the twin attacks on Kabul, with the Foreign Office extending condolences to the government and people of Afghanistan and the families who lost their loved ones in the attack.

Later, he said defense forces had ended the assault, killing the three attackers who’d carried it out.

Care International said in a statement that its staff were safely evacuated from the office.

The area is home to several guest houses.

Afghan officials say twin bombings near the Defense Ministry in the capital have killed at least five people. The total civilian casualty figure recorded by the United Nations since 1 January 2009 through 30 June 2016 has risen to 63,934, including 22,941 deaths and 40,993 injured.

Among the dead, which included both security forces and civilians, were the head of Kabul’s second police district and his deputy, an official said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

“General Raziq succumbed to his wounds in a hospital”, said General Mohammad Radmanish, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defence.

Public Health Ministry spokesman Ismail Kawasi said 91 people were wounded in the attack in central Kabul.

A statement from the ministry added that the attackers were wearing suicide vests.

Security forces blocked all roads leading to the Shar-e Naw neighbourhood throughout the operation to end the siege.