Afghan officials said about two dozen mortar shells struck downtown Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least eight people and wounding 31 others. They stormed Kabul University, the country's largest school where an Iranian ambassador attended a book fair, triggering an hours-long gunfight that left 22 people injured. Officials said they struck various parts of the Afghan capital in the early hours of Wednesday with about 23 mortar shells, killing and wounding 31 others. Gunmen stormed a hospital west of Kabul, killing at least four people, including two police officers, before clashing with security forces, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said.

In another attack in Kabul, a member of the Afghan security forces was killed and three others were wounded by a bomb attached to a car, police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said hours after the attack. A local branch of the Islamic State issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, which targeted the so-called "Green Zone" in Kabul, which is home to the headquarters of the Afghan security forces, the country's top security force, according to the group's website.

The mortar fire came as Afghan government and Taliban officials continue to hold talks in Qatar, though progress has been slow. Peace talks between the Taliban and the Kabul government, known as intra-Afghan talks, are part of an agreement Washington signed with the insurgents in February. The peace agreement guarantees a two-year ceasefire and an end to the war in Afghanistan, as well as the withdrawal of US troops.

On 20 December 2001, Kabul became the capital of the Afghan Transitional Government, which became the current Afghan government under President Hamid Karzai. On 21 December 2002, the first major Taliban attack on the US embassy in Kabul, and on 11 December 2003, a suicide attack on a US military base in the city. In December 2001, Kabul became the center of an Afghan transitional government that was transformed into a current Afghan government led by the current US-backed president, Afghan President Ghani.

Kabul became the capital of the Kushano - Hephthalite kingdom of Kapisa, known as Kabul Shahan. The city was named after the city of Kabul, a city in the eastern province of Khost, in honor of the former capital Kabul.

The Afghan national cricket team of Kabul province, which is part of the Afghan National Cricket Association (ANCA), represents the province itself. Kabul is also home to the annual Buzkashi cricket and football tournament, which brings together Afghan national teams and those from neighboring Pakistan.

Kabul (Persian: khbl - IPA: bul) is the capital of Kabul province and the second largest city in the country after Kabul. Kabul University is a member of the University of Afghanistan, Kabul University, National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), Afghan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) and Kabul State University (BSA).

In a way, the city of Kabul and its surroundings, like the Kabul University campus, are a microcosm of recent Afghan history. It was once Afghanistan's capital, occupied mostly by Hazaras, and home to many of the country's most important universities.

NATO and ISAF forces took control of the city's security in late 2008, but the Taliban leadership quickly lost control of the country and moved to southern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. There, an uprising against the Western-backed government led to a series of attacks on government buildings, hospitals, schools and other public facilities. The Taliban launched a campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and attacks on government troops that caught a number of Afghan civilians in the crossfire and displaced tens of thousands of residents.

The highway to Kandahar has since been rebuilt, but the journey is very dangerous because of the Taliban, the US embassy in Kabul said.

While NATO is also heavily present, but no longer patrolling the streets, the newly trained Afghan National Police (ANP) is responsible for security in the region. But it is not only the Taliban who must fear the Afghans, because the military intelligence services are weak. I say that terrorism in Afghanistan was not controlled, which led to our withdrawal.

Internal instability in Afghanistan has major regional implications. Pakistan, India, Iran and Russia are competing for influence over Kabul and sub-national actors.

The attack on Kabul University, which comes at a time of heightened violence in Afghanistan, is the latest in a series of educational institutions targeted by IS groups and extremists in the capital. The Taliban, the Afghan branch of ISIS, is active in Kabul and has carried out attacks on schools and universities in the past. The latest violence, which the Afghan department claims is its own, is said to have led to several deadly attacks in recent weeks, including a suicide bombing at Kabul University in October and a shooting at a university in December. Taliban militants also attacked the American University for Afghanistan near the capital in January, killing 13 students, teachers and security forces.