A bomb has exploded near a checkpoint at Kabul’s military airport killing and wounding “several” people, a Taliban official says, the first deadly blast of 2023 in Afghanistan.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday morning, but the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, has increased its attacks since the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority.

The military airport is about 200 metres from the civilian airport and close to the Interior Ministry, itself the site of a suicide bombing in October that killed at least four people.

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Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the blast left several people dead and wounded.

He gave no exact figures or further information about the bombing, saying details of an investigation will be shared later.

Although Taliban security forces prevented photography and filming directly at the blast site, the checkpoint appeared damaged but intact.

It is on Airport Road, which leads to high-security neighbourhoods housing government ministries, foreign embassies and the presidential palace.

A spokesman for the Kabul police chief, Khalid Zadran, was not immediately available for comment.

-Reuters