Suicide attacks target coalition forces, Afghan spy agency building

Two suicide attacks rocked areas in and around Kabul on Tuesday, one of them targeting coalition forces and another an Afghan government building, authorities said.

The first blast was apparently aimed at international forces and took place around 11:30 a.m. in the Shah Shahid area of Kabul, police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, according to a Twitter post by spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.

U.S. Army Col. Brian Tribus, a spokesman for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, confirmed the "vehicle-borne IED attack."

Tribus said that no coalition forces died as a result and that "all personnel and equipment have been recovered." It was not immediately clear if any such forces suffered injuries, or how many of the attackers died.

Just over two hours later, three suicide bombers attacked a district office of Afghanistan's spy agency, the National Directorate of Security, east of Kabul, Karimi said.

The first attacker blew up his explosives-packed three-wheel vehicle in front of the compound's gate, Karimi said. The other two then tried to get inside, only to be killed by armed National Directorate of Security guards.

In addition to the slain attackers, one of the guards was killed in the attack and another wounded, the police spokesman said.

Violent attacks a persistent problem

Such violence is hardly unprecedented in Afghanistan, which has been wracked by years of unrest.

The Taliban had ruled the Asian nation until U.S.-led forces ousted them from power after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for helping harbor al Qaeda. The group never went away, though, remaining a disruptive and sometimes deadly force.

The international community has been extensively engaged in Afghanistan during that time, both with military troops and nongovernmental organizations. The United States has led the way militarily, though it has steadily wound down its presence.

President Barack Obama had announced his intention to pull out all but 5,500 troops by year's end. But a senior Obama administration official said in March that Obama was reconsidering that drawdown at the request of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

While some violence continues to be directed at international forces, they are not the only ones being targeted.

On Saturday, attackers on a motorbike threw acid on three teenage girls on their way to school in the western city of Herat, provincial education official Aziz-ul-Rahman Sarwary said. Noor hospital head Jamal Abdul Naser Akhundzad said the girls were told "this is punishment for going to school" -- which, if true, would be in line with other instances in which Islamist extremists have attacked girls for pursuing their education.

And last week, two civilians died and 51 others were wounded in a suicide car bombing in Helmand province, provincial government spokesman Omar Zwak said. The same day, a suicide car bomb targeting foreign forces traveling along an airport road killed one Afghan civilian and injured 22 other civilians, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.