Suicide bombing at Russian embassy in Kabul kills 2 diplomats

A suicide bombing outside the Russian Embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul kills two members of the embassy staff and at least one Afghan civilian in what Moscow denounces as an “unacceptable terrorist act.”

The blast went off at the entrance to the embassy’s consular section where Afghans were waiting for news about their visas, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry and the state news agency RIA Novosti. A Russian diplomat had emerged from the building to call out the names of candidates for visas when the explosion occurred, the agency says.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, the latest in a series of attacks since the Taliban seized power a year ago, deposing a Western-backed government and capping their 20-year insurgency.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calls the explosion “a terrorist act, absolutely unacceptable.” He tells reporters during his daily press conference call that “now the main thing that needs to be done is to get information from the ground about what happened to our diplomatic representatives.”

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the embassy has enhanced its security in the wake of the attack, and that “additional forces of the Taliban authorities,” including the Taliban-run intelligence service, were brought in.