KABUL – A Taliban suicide car bombing in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killed 17 people yesterday, at least 12 of them Americans, in the deadliest attack on coalition forces since August.
An improvised bomb in a vehicle caused “a number of casualties” the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force said on its website. It later said the victims included five ISAF service members and eight Isaf civilian employees.
“Our common enemy continues to employ suicide attackers to kill innocent Afghan fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, as well as the coalition forces who have volunteered to protect them,” Gen John Allen, the coalition commander, said in an e-mailed statement.
Three civilians and a policeman died after the suicide car bomber targeted a coalition forces convoy at 11:30am Afghan time, police said. An ISAF vehicle was “severely” damaged, the force said. A Canadian soldier was among those killed, the Department of National Defence said.
The UK government said two British nationals were also among the 13 ISAF personnel who died. “Next of kin have been informed,” the Foreign Office in London said.
The Taliban is responsible, Zabihullah Mujahed, a spokesman for the movement, said in a text message. As a result of the car bomb, 16 foreigners were killed and injured and one civilian died, Mujahed said. The blast happened as the convoy was passing the American University, sparking a fireball and littering the street with shrapnel, according to the Associated Press.
Gen Allen said there were two other attacks in Afghanistan yesterday. Three people were killed and several wounded when a man wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his gun on Afghan and coalition forces in the southern part of the country. Three Australian soldiers were killed and seven wounded in the incident, the Australian Department of Defense said.
An Afghan soldier carried out the shooting in the Kandahar province and was shot dead by coalition forces. The Australian newspaper, citing Gen Abdul Hameed in the eastern province of Kunar, a teenage girl carried out a suicide attack that wounded several people at a National Directorate of Security building. – (Bloomberg)