A suicide bomber attacked the office of a US-owned security company in southern Afghanistan this morning killing seven people, including two Americans, a government and company official said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast outside the office of the Houston-based US Protection and Investigations (USPI) in Kandahar city.
"The bomber was questioned by a security guard as to where he was going, in front of the office, and he blew himself up among company employees," Kandahar's police chief Esmatullah Alizai told reporters.
The employees had gathered for a regular morning briefing outside their office, which is opposite a base of Afghanistan's NATO security force, he said.
Two of the victims were Americans working for the company. Five Afghans and the bomber were also killed. The company provides guards to protect foreign companies working on construction and infrastructure projects.
Meanwhile, a British Royal Marine has been killed and a second injured in a battle with Taliban fighters.
The battle came as British forces launched an operation to dislodge Taliban forces responsible for attacks on the village of Garmsir in southern Helmand.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed the marine killed was from RM Condor in Arbroath, Scotland. However, they would not say whether the serviceman was Scottish.
Both Marines were airlifted to the UK military hospital in Camp Bastion where the injured man underwent surgery.
Afghanistan this year has plunged into the bloodiest period of violence since U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban's radical Islamic government in 2001. It was the third suicide bomb attack in the city this week.
Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a spokesman for the Taliban, said by telephone that the bomber was a member of the Islamist group which is battling to oust foreign forces.
About 105 suicide bomb attacks this year have killed nearly 250 people, most of them civilians, according to the NATO force.