Explosion, gunfire heard near interior ministry in Kabul – report

A loud explosion followed by gunfire was heard on Wednesday near Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry compound in the capital, Kabul. Police officials inside the compound were quoted as saying they believed it was a militant attack on the ministry. Wednesday’s incident comes after a series of deadly attacks in Kabul this year, which have killed and wounded hundreds of people. A US military spokesman said on Wednesday that more than 50 senior Taliban commanders were killed in an artillery strike on a meeting in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand, Reuters reported. The attack in the district of Musa Qala in Helmand, one of the heartlands of the Taliban insurgency, was a significant blow to the insurgents, according to Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan.