Taliban strikes in heart of Kabul in deadly attack on elite agency

     An Afghan man carries a girl who was injured in a huge explosion that targeted the Ministry of Defense, in Kabul.
Taliban militants attacked an elite government security agency with a suicide bomb and gunfire Tuesday, killing at least 28 people and wounding more than 320 others in one of the most devastating attacks in Kabul in years, Afghan officials said. The target — the main training ground for an Afghan intelligence unit tasked
with protecting senior officials — represented a direct strike against the Western-aided government a week after the Taliban announced its spring offensive.
The raid also was a message that the reach of fighters — and their ability to stage major coordinated attacks — appears undimmed, despite rifts within the militant group’s ranks and pressures from the rival Islamic State, as it seeks to expand its influence in Afghanistan.
For leaders in Kabul, meanwhile, it may shatter for now any hope of reviving stalled peace talks with the Taliban, and it puts President Ashraf Ghani under growing pressure from rivals over his efforts to reach out to the Islamist insurgent group.
The attack ended several weeks of relative calm in the Afghan capital. It began when a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives next to the security compound, said Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid. The blast was so powerful that it shattered windows and cracked building facades up to two miles away.
After the explosion shredded part of the compound, other gunmen entered the facility, touching off a three-hour gun battle less than a mile from the presidential palace and the Ministry of Defense in a densely populated part of the city.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, even as the number of people killed and wounded were still being counted.

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