MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. Moscow strongly condemns the terrorist attack near the Afghan Foreign Ministry building and calls on the Afghan authorities to take active steps to eradicate terrorism in the country, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.

"We strongly condemn the January 11 terrorist attack in the vicinity of the Afghan Foreign Ministry building in Kabul. The ISIS (former name of IS, a terrorist organization banned in Russia - TASS) group claimed responsibility for it," she said, "According to preliminary data, there are 40 casualties as a result of the attack, including employees of the Afghan Foreign Ministry."

"We expect the Afghan government to conduct a thorough investigation into the attack and find and bring those responsible to justice. We call on the Afghan authorities to take active steps to eradicate the terrorist threat in the country," Zakharova emphasized.

The diplomat expressed her condolences to the families and friends of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to those injured. "This tragic event is, to all appearances, another in a series of earlier attacks on the Russian and Pakistani diplomatic missions in Kabul, as well as the capital's hotel with Chinese citizens living there," she said.

The Hasht-e Subh newspaper earlier reported that over 20 people were killed when a bomb exploded on Wednesday near the Foreign Ministry building in the center of Kabul. Khalil Zadran, spokesman for the Kabul security department, told Afghan media that "at least five civilians were killed and several others were wounded" as a result of the incident.

The Russian diplomatic mission in Kabul told TASS that the employees of the Russian embassy in Kabul were safe after the explosion near the Afghan Foreign Ministry and that there was no information about any injured Russians.