Taliban fighters mounted a car bomb attack on a guest house near the Spanish embassy in Kabul on Friday, killing at least one security officer and further dimming any hopes of peace talks with moderate elements of the Islamist insurgent movement.
Gunfire was reported immediately following the explosion, which the Taliban said targeted a guest house attached to the embassy near a heavily protected area of the capital close to many other foreign embassies, U.N. and government buildings.
A spokesman for the Spanish foreign ministry said there had been an explosion in the embassy, which is outside the fortified "green zone", but Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said later that the attack was not directed at the embassy itself but at the guest house.
On Wednesday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani returned from a regional peace conference in Islamabad aimed at reviving stalled peace talks with Taliban militants following several months of relative calm in the Afghan capital.