Seven Afghans were killed and 44 wounded by a suicide car bomb today outside a hotel used by foreigners in Kabul's main diplomatic area and across the street from a former vice president's home, a security official said.
The blast took place shortly before president Hamid Karzai began speaking at an anti-corruption conference elsewhere in the Afghan capital.
The wreckage of the bomber's car was in flames outside the gate to the Heetal Hotel in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, sending thick black smoke into the sky.
The home of former vice president Ahmad Zia Massoud, brother of late anti-Soviet guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, was heavily damaged. A police source said the former vice president may have been the intended target.
A Reuters photographer at the scene saw Mr Massoud being escorted away from his house unharmed, surrounded by the flaming wreckage of the car. The house next to Mr Massoud's, a guest house run by an Indian company, was also badly damaged.
Indian national Harjeet Singh, a guest at the Heetal, said some of the guests had been wounded and taken to hospital.
Attacks in Kabul have increased over the past year, with militants hitting high-profile targets such as government buildings and guest houses catering for the influx of foreigners working for contractors and aid groups.
Last month, Taliban suicide bombers stormed a guest house in a district adjacent to where Tuesday's attack took place, killing six U.N. staff -- the militants' most audacious attack on foreign civilians since the war started in 2001. The United
Nations responded by withdrawing hundreds of foreigners from Kabul.
The fortified Heetal was damaged in the blast, though not as heavily as nearby houses in the district, home to officials, aid organisations and diplomatic residences.
Reuters