Afghan officials say at least two suicide bomb blasts have killed three people in the capital, Kabul.

Authorities say two Afghan police and a civilian were killed in the early Friday attack on a British cultural center. A gunfight between Afghan security forces and militants followed the explosions.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the blasts. A Taliban spokesman said the attack targeted the British Council and a United Nations compound.

It was not immediately clear whether the U.N. compound had been attacked.

The blasts took place in the early hours of Afghanistan's Independence Day, marking the country's independence from Britain in 1919.

On Thursday, authorities say a roadside bomb ripped through a minibus in western Afghanistan, killing at least 21 people.

That explosion took place in the Obe district of Herat province. Afghan officials say women and children were among those killed. At least 12 people were wounded in the attack.

A spokesman for Herat's governor says another roadside bomb hit a vehicle in the same district early Thursday, wounding four people.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO condemned Thursday's bomb attacks, which were blamed on Taliban insurgents.

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, with international troop and Afghan civilian deaths reaching record levels.