35 killed in Kabul explosions

Kabul: At least 35 people were killed and hundreds more injured in separate bomb attacks in Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul, media reports said on Saturday.

A suicide bomber blew himself up near the city’s police academy on Friday evening, killing 20 recruits, BBC reported.

A short while later a large explosion was heard north of the airport.

The Taliban has claimed only one attack – the suicide bombing of the police academy.

Officials said Friday evening’s suicide bomber was dressed in police uniform when he detonated an explosives-laden vest outside the gates of Kabul’s police academy.

He had stood among a queue of police cadets who were waiting to enter the building having returned from their two-day weekend, officials said.

At least 25 cadets were injured.

The truck bomb, which went off in the early hours of Friday in the largely residential Shah Shahid area, caused one of the largest explosions the city has ever experienced. It killed 15 people.

It flattened buildings, damaged cars and left a 10m crater in the road.

At least 240 people – mostly civilians – were injured.