KABUL -- Afghan officials say an attack claimed by the extremist group Islamic State (IS) on an intelligence training center in the capital has ended with the death of three attackers.
Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said that a cleanup operation was now under way in the Afshar area of Kabul after militants on December 18 stormed a partially constructed building near an intelligence training center, triggering intense fighting with security forces.
There were no reports of casualties among security forces or civilians.
Rahimi earlier said that the attackers entered a building under construction near a training center of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's main intelligence agency.
He said the militants were targeting the training center from the building, using light weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
Initial reports indicated the attackers were wearing police uniforms, he added.
The IS group claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency.
Both the Taliban and the IS group have carried out deadly attacks in Kabul in the past. The Western-backed government there has been struggling to fend off militants since the withdrawal of most NATO troops in 2014.
Security in the capital has been ramped up since May 31, when a truck bomb ripped through the city's diplomatic quarter, killing about 150 people and wounding hundreds, mostly civilians.
No group has claimed responsibility for that attack, which the government has blamed on the Taliban-allied Haqqani network.
On December 17, officials said that 11 police officers were killed and two others wounded in a Taliban attack on two checkpoints in the southern province of Helmand. Fifteen militants reportedly died in the fighting.
In neighboring Pakistan, the IS group claimed responsibility for a December 17 suicide attack on a church. At least nine people were killed and more than 50 injured in the blast in the southwestern city of Quetta.
