New Delhi, Nov 3 (TIWN) At least 19 people were killed and 43 wounded when two explosions followed by gunfire hit Afghanistan's biggest military hospital in the capital Kabul, Al Jazeera reported.

The attack got under way when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the entrance of the sprawling site.  Gunmen then broke into the hospital grounds, firing their weapons there, the Taliban said. 

"Nineteen dead bodies and about 50 wounded people have been taken to hospitals in Kabul," a health ministry official who asked not to be named told AFP. 

The Taliban spent 20 years waging an insurgency against the ousted US-backed government.  Now they face the struggle of bringing stability to Afghanistan, which has been hit in recent weeks by a series of bloody assaults claimed by the Islamic State group's local chapter.  Tuesday's attack has not yet been claimed by any group.