Blast near Kabul hospital kills 3, wounds 16, say medics

KABUL, Afghanistan — An explosion goes off at the entrance of a military hospital in Kabul, killing three people and wounding at least 16, say health officials.

The blast was set off at the entrance to the Sardar Mohammad Dawood Khan military hospital, the spokesman of the Taliban-run Interior Ministry, Saeed Khosty, writes in a tweet. He adds that special forces were at the scene.

City residents report two explosions in the area, of the hospital in Kabul’s 10th district, along with the sound of gunfire.

Sayed Abdullah Ahmadi, the director of the nearby Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, says his facility received three bodies and seven people who were injured in the blast. Another nine injured were taken to the Afghanistan Emergency Hospital.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. In recent weeks, the Islamic State group has carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks. IS is a rival of the Taliban, and has stepped up attacks since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in a swift military campaign in August.