UPDATE: At least 90 are dead and 400 injured in massive suicide car bomb attack near British, US, French and German embassies in Kabul

The attack in Kabul comes at a time when the security situation in Afghanistan has come under renewed scrutiny.

The Taliban have been stepping up their push to defeat the U.S.-backed government and reimpose Islamic law after their 2001 ouster in a Washington-backed invasion.

Since most international troops withdrew at the end of 2014, the Taliban have gained ground and now control or contest about 40 percent of the country, according to U.S. estimates, though President Ashraf Ghani's government holds all provincial centres.

Meanwhile ISIS has established a stronghold in Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan, of which Jalalabad is capital, where it fights both the Taliban and Afghan government forces.

U.S. President Donald Trump is due to decide soon on a recommendation to send 3,000 to 5,000 more troops to bolster the small NATO training force and U.S. counter-terrorism mission now totalling just over 10,000.

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, told a congressional hearing earlier this year that he needed several thousand more troops to help Afghan forces break a 'stalemate' with the Taliban.

The attack in Kabul (pictured) comes at a time when the security situation in Afghanistan has come under renewed scrutiny

A wounded man looks out a window near the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan this morning. Afghanistan authorities are still battling for stability in the country

Earlier this month, US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said the security situation in Afghanistan will further deteriorate even if there is a modest increase in U.S. military support for the war-torn country.

Afghan army units are pulling back, and in some cases have been forced to abandon more scattered and rural bases, and the government can claim to control or influence only 57 percent of the country, according to U.S. military estimates from earlier this year.

'The intelligence community assesses that the political and security situation in Afghanistan will almost certainly deteriorate through 2018, even with a modest increase in (the) military assistance by the United States and its partners,' Coats said in a Senate hearing.

In February, Army General John Nicholson, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said he needs several thousand more international troops to break a stalemate with the Taliban. 

Deliberations include giving more authorities to forces on the ground and taking more aggressive action against Taliban fighters. This could allow U.S. advisers to work with Afghan troops below the corps level, potentially putting them closer to fighting, a U.S. official said.  

President Ashraf Ghani's U.S.-backed government remains plagued by corruption and divided by factions loyal to political strongmen whose armed supporters often are motivated by ethnic, family, and regional loyalties.

Coats said that Afghanistan would struggle to decrease its reliance on the international community 'until it contains the insurgency or reaches a peace agreement with the Taliban.'

A massive truck bomb ripped through Kabul's diplomatic quarter on Wednesday, killing at least 80 people and wounding over 300.

Here are some of the worst attacks in the Afghan capital over the past year and a half:

2016

- January 20: A Taliban suicide bomber rams his car into a minibus belonging to television channel Tolo, killing seven of its employees, in the first major attack on the Afghan media.

- February 1: Twenty police officers are killed and 29 people injured in a Taliban suicide attack on a police base in Kabul.

- February 27: A suicide bomber blows himself up outside the defence ministry, killing 12 in an attack claimed by the Taliban.

- April 19: A truck bomb followed by a shootout leaves 64 people dead and more than 340 injured in central Kabul in a Taliban-claimed attack.

A massive truck bomb ripped through Kabul's diplomatic quarter on Wednesday, killing at least 80 people and wounding over 300

- May 25: Ten people are killed in a Taliban suicide attack targeting a minibus carrying court employees in a western Kabul suburb.

- June 20: Fourteen Nepalese security guards employed by Western embassies are killed on the outskirts of Kabul, in a Taliban assault.

- June 30: A double suicide attack by the Taliban against a convoy of police recruits leaves 30 dead.

- July 23: Islamic State jihadists claim responsibility for twin explosions that rips through crowds of Shiite Hazaras in Kabul, killing at least 85 people and wounding more than 400.

- August 25: Sixteen people are killed after militants storm the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, in a nearly 10-hour raid that was not claimed.

- September 5: A double Taliban attack near the defence ministry leaves 41 dead and more than a hundred injured.

Overnight a third attack, which was not claimed, targets aid group CARE International in central Kabul. Six are injured.

Wounded Afghan women and men gesture at the site of a car bomb attack in Kabul this morning. It is not the first time Kabul has been targeted by terrorists

- October 12: Islamic State claim responsibility for an attack on a shrine that kills at least 18 people gathering to mark Ashura, one of the most important Shiite festivals.

- October 19: Two Americans including a civilian are killed when a gunman opens fire near a NATO base in Kabul, with Afghan officials calling it an 'insider attack'.

- November 21: A massive suicide blast targeting Shiites kills at least 27 people and wounds 64 at a Kabul mosque in another sectarian attack claimed by IS.

2017

- January 10: Twin blasts near the Afghan parliament kill 38 people and wound 86.

- February 7: A suicide bomb rips through a crowd of Supreme Court employees, killing at least 20 and wounding 41. No group claims responsibility.

- March 1: Sixteen people are killed in simultaneous Taliban suicide assaults on two security compounds.

- March 8: Gunmen disguised as doctors storm Afghanistan's largest military hospital in a six-hour attack officially claimed by IS. The official death toll is 50 but security sources and survivors say it exceeded 100.

- May 3: A powerful blast targeting a foreign forces convoy near the US embassy and NATO headquarters kills at least eight people and wounds 28 during morning rush hour.

- May 31: At least 80 people are killed and hundreds wounded when a massive truck bomb rips through Kabul's diplomatic quarter, shattering windows hundreds of metres away.