The device had been placed under the bus, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said. In the immediate aftermath, as people rushed to help victims, two more bombs that had been planted by the side of the road went off, he added. Among the wounded was an Afghan journalist who appeared to have been live-streaming the aftermath of the first explosion when he was hit in a secondary blast.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.Initial reports said the bus was carrying university officials, but Kabul police spokesman Firdaws Faramarz later said students had been on board.According to health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar, two people were killed and 24 more wounded. Among those wounded were five Afghan security forces. The journalist was expected to recover from his leg wounds. Last year, nine journalists including AFP Kabul’s chief photographer Shah Marai were killed in a secondary explosion after rushing to the scene of an initial blast.

A fourth blast rocked Kabul later Sunday, when yet another sticky bomb hit a vehicle in the western part of the city. Initial reports said three people were wounded. President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani condemned the attacks, saying the “enemy” cannot “weaken the faith of our people for a bright and progressive future of Afghanistan.” Afghanistan’s IS affiliate, known IS-K, has claimed responsibility for a string of horrific bombings targeting numerous civilian, religious and political targets in recent years.

The continued violence in Afghanistan comes even as the Taliban and the US are set to begin a new round of peace talks in Doha this month.

On Friday, a Taliban car bomber killed at least four Afghan civilians and lightly wounded four US troops in an attack on a US convoy in Kabul.

A day earlier, at least six people were killed and 16 more wounded in an IS-claimed suicide blast outside a military academy in the capital.