Members of Afghan security forces guard near the site of a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2022. Two people were confirmed dead and 22 others injured in a blast which rocked the western edge of Kabul on Saturday, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said on social media. Photo: Xinhua

A suicide bomber struck near the Russian Embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, killing two staff from the diplomatic mission and wounding several other people, the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow said.

In the first attack targeting a foreign mission since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the bomber blew himself up near the entrance of the embassy's consular section.

"As a result of the attack, two employees of the diplomatic mission were killed, and there are also Afghan citizens among the wounded," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. 

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Nafy Takor gave AFP a different account, saying a suicide attacker was shot dead by Taliban guards at the Russian Embassy.

An Afghan civilian was killed and several others wounded, he said.

No group has so far claimed the attack on the embassy. 

"Without any doubt, we are talking about a terrorist act, which is absolutely unacceptable," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists in Moscow.

Violence in Afghanistan has largely declined since the Taliban returned to power, but several bomb blasts have rocked the country in recent months, many claimed by the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group.

Last week, a suicide bomber struck one of western Afghanistan's biggest mosques, killing at least 18 people, including an influential imam.

Several mosques across the country have been targeted in 2022, some in attacks claimed by IS.

At least 21 people were killed and dozens more wounded on August 17 when a blast ripped through a mosque packed with worshippers in Kabul.

IS has primarily targeted minority communities such as Shiites, Sufis and Sikhs.

AFP