A security source told Al Jazeera that a huge car bomb explosion occurred near the home of the Afghan Defense Minister in the center of the capital, Kabul, while Washington stressed the need to speed up peace talks.
Al-Jazeera correspondent said that the huge explosion occurred in the tenth district in the center of the capital, Kabul, near the house of Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.
He added that the explosion was followed by shooting, and that ambulances rushed to the spot, amid initial reports that the target was the home of the Afghan Defense Minister.
Reuters correspondents said that a powerful explosion occurred in the center of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday, near the headquarters of diplomatic missions and a crowded market square.
The explosion, which led to the rise of a thick column of smoke, coincides with the Taliban's continuing offensive to seize three provincial capitals.
US-Russian call to speed up peace talks
On the other hand, the US State Department said that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani agreed in a phone call on Tuesday on the need to accelerate peace talks in Afghanistan and condemned the continued attacks by the Taliban.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement about the call that Blinken reiterated "the United States' strong and continuing commitment to Afghanistan."
The Russian Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, also called for launching the Afghan-Afghan dialogue as soon as possible with the aim of forming an inclusive government.
Kabulov described the Afghan government as weak and ineffective, and trying to survive at any cost, despite the administrative, political and other mistakes committed during the past years.
He added that "it is true that these mistakes were committed on the advice of advisers and allies from across the ocean, and from NATO countries, but the Afghan people must remove these mistakes, otherwise they will remain the first and main victim of them."
Kabulov stressed that the Taliban movement does not pose a threat in the foreseeable future to Central Asian countries, and that the movement's mere presence in the northern regions of the country will serve to contain terrorist threats.
In the same context, the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan reported that 15 civilians were killed and 127 others wounded in clashes during the past three days, in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand.
The mission added that thousands of people were displaced from their homes;
Warning of the continued military escalation and its repercussions on civilians.