Two Russian embassy employees in Kabul were among six persons killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives at the embassy’s entrance, injuring at least ten others, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry and Afghan officials on Monday.

The assailant was shot dead by armed guards as he approached the gate, according to police, in one of the first such attacks since the Taliban took power last year.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, an unknown insurgent detonated an explosive device outside the embassy’s consular department about 10:50 a.m. Kabul time.

According to Khalid Zadran, a Kabul police spokeswoman, the four other people murdered were Afghan civilians.

Russia is one of the few countries to have maintained an embassy in Kabul after the Taliban took over the country more than a year ago. Although Moscow does not officially recognize the Taliban’s government, they have been in talks with officials over an agreement to supply gasoline and other commodities.

During the decades-long Taliban insurgency against the western-backed Afghan government, bombings targeting foreign missions were a regular occurrence in Kabul, especially in recent years, with embassies and hotels fortifying themselves with razor wire and blast walls.

Such incidents have decreased dramatically since the insurgent group swept to power in August 2021.

Since then, attacks – some of them claimed by Islamic State – mainly targeted the Taliban and civilian targets such as mosques.

No group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s blast.