Scene of the attack in Kabul.
A military hospital in Kabul was targeted (Picture: Reuters/Getty)

At least 25 people are dead after suicide bombers targeted a hospital in Afghanistan.

A defense ministry official said six suicide bombers were involved in blasts at the entrance of a Kabul military hospital and tried to enter the facility, but were pushed back by Taliban guards.

More than 50 people are thought to have been injured, with gunmen also attacking the site, which was hit by at least two heavy blasts.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack – one of the most brazen since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in a swift military campaign in August.

But previous similar incidents have been claimed by militants from Islamic State, an enemy of the Taliban, who have carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks in recent in weeks.

And IS carried out a complex attack on the venue in 2017, killing more than 30 people.

Four of the attackers on Tuesday were killed by Taliban security forces and a fifth was captured, Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said.

Emergency responders carry an injured person at a bomb blast scene in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Nov. 2, 2021.
An injured person is carried from the scene of the bomb blast scene in Kabul (Picture: REX)
A Taliban fighter, who was injured during a blast, is pictured at the entrance of the hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan November 2, 2021.
Taliban fighters were injured during the incident (Picture: Reuters)

A health worker at the hospital, who managed to escape, said he heard a large explosion followed by a couple of minutes of gunfire.

About ten minutes later, there was a second, larger explosion, he said.

Hibatullah Jamal, a Taliban official from the Defense Ministry, claimed two attackers were captured.

He said Taliban fighters were among those killed, but that most of the casualties were civilians, adding that the Taliban had regained control of the building.

People flee the scene of bomb blasts targeting a military hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, 02 November 2021.
People fled the scene of bomb blasts (Picture: EPA)
Smoke billows near the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan National Military Hospital after an explosion in central Kabul, Afghanistan November 2, 2021.
Smoke was seen billowing from near the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan National Military Hospital (Picture: Reuters)

The 400-bed Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan hospital is Afghanistan’s biggest military hospital.

The stricken-country is also facing a spiralling economic crisis that has threatened millions with poverty as winter approaches.

Thousands of former fighters are now without jobs.

The abrupt withdrawal of international support following the Taliban victory brought Afghanistan’s fragile economy to the brink of collapse just as a severe drought threatened millions with hunger.

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