Kabul truck bomb kills 15, wounds hundreds

A truck bomb exploded near an army compound in the center of the Afghan capital on Friday, killing at least 15 people and wounding close to 250, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office said. 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion, which shook the center of Kabul and ripped through homes and shops and was heard for miles around the city.

Sources told Al Jazeera that the target of the attack was a nearby Afghan military base. "A truck bomb detonated close to an army compound," said Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi.

Police expect the number of dead to rise, because buildings collapsed and bodies were feared buried in the wreckage.

Dozens were wounded by debris and glass shattering in the heavily populated area, and cars parked a few hundred feet away were damaged by the blast, said a witness.

Police do not allow trucks to enter in Kabul during the daytime, but they may enter from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m.

In the heavily fortified capital, frequently targeted by the Taliban and other militants seeking to destabilize the Afghan government, smaller magnet bombs or suicide attacks have become a weekly occurrence, but large truck bombs have rarely penetrated the city's outskirts. The blast on Friday was unusually powerful.

An official at the Emergency Hospital in Kabul said the facility was flooded with almost 100 patients, including many women and children. Most were arriving on foot, the official said, and were being treated for superficial wounds. He said doctors had started operating on the more severe cases.

The Afghan war between the foreign-backed government and the Taliban has intensified since the NATO combat mission ended last year and most foreign troops were withdrawn.

The truck bomb was the second huge explosion to target security forces in 24 hours. Early on Thursday, a truck bomb targeting an Afghan special forces base exploded in eastern Logar province.

Dozens of clashes are reported every day, and civilians are frequently caught in the crossfire. The United Nations said Wednesday that a growing number of women and children are getting hurt or killed. Almost 5,000 civilians have been wounded or killed in the conflict during first six months of 2015, the U.N. said.

Al Jazeera with Reuters