TEHRAN, September 5. /TASS/. The agencies of the Taliban, a radical movement (banned in the Russian Federation) in power in Afghanistan, have launched an investigation into the circumstances of Monday’s blast near the consular section of the Russian embassy in the Afghan capital, Zabihullah Mujahid, Afghanistan’s Deputy Minister of Information and Culture in the Taliban's interim cabinet, said on Twitter.
"Today, a man who was trying to sneak in explosives was killed by the Kabul’s 7th district security forces. The incident resulted in an explosion, which left many of our compatriots dead and wounded. The area [of the explosion] is being secured and investigated [by special services]," Mujahid wrote.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier on Monday that at 10:50 Kabul time, an unknown militant detonated an explosive device near the entrance to the consular section of the Russian Embassy in Kabul, killing two members of the diplomatic mission. The ministry noted that the embassy was in close contact with Afghan special services.
According to the Al Jazeera TV channel, at least eight people were killed in the blast, and at least 15 more were wounded. The Al Arabiya TV channel noted that the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber, who approached the gates of the Russian diplomatic mission and was shot dead by the Taliban. The Afghan newspaper Hasht e Subh specified that at the time of the explosion, there were Afghans (mostly students) outside the Russian embassy who had gone to the consular department of the diplomatic mission to obtain Russian visas.