Thick plume of black smoke seen near US embassy and NATO-led mission, but they were not affected

A Taliban suicide bomb and gun assault on a government security building during Tuesday morning rush hour in central Kabul killed at least 28 people and wounded more than 320, in the most deadly single attack in the Afghan capital since 2011.

President Ashraf Ghani condemned the assault "in the strongest possible terms" in a statement from the presidential palace, located only a few hundred meters away from the scene of the blast.