More than 100 people have been killed in a suicide bombing on Saturday in Kabul, Al Jazeera reports. According to the report, the attackers drove an ambulance past a police checkpoint to get to a crowded street in a district full of government buildings and embassies, before detonating the bomb by ramming the vehicle into one of the buildings.
The attacker had reportedly told Policemen at the checkpoint that he was rushing a patient to a nearby Jamhuriat medical facility for urgent medical attention before he was allowed to go without the routine checks.
The Taliban - a hardline Islamist group - said it was behind the attack, which has been described as the deadliest attack in Afghanistan for months and took place a week after an attack on a Kabul hotel in which 22 people were killed.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid blamed the attack on US efforts to assist Afghan forces with troops and air strikes in a bid to freeze the Taliban.
He had said "If you go ahead with a policy of aggression and speak from the barrel of a gun, don't expect Afghans to grow flowers in response."
Meanwhile, Afghanistan's government has declared a day of mourning for Sunday, as funerals take place and relatives search hospitals for survivors.
