A suicide car bomb exploded outside the NATO military headquarters in the Afghan capital yesterday and killed three people, the defense ministry said, in a brazen attack days before elections.
The Taliban militia behind a soaring insurgency claimed responsibility for the blast at the main gate of the heavily fortified headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
The victims were confirmed to be Afghans. It was the first such attack outside the Kabul base, which collects soldiers from several countries and is the headquarters of the US commander of more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan to fight extremism.
PHOTO: AFP
The blast was also close to one of the security gates to the US embassy.
Dozens were wounded outside the base, police said, but ISAF could not be reached to confirm if it had any casualties.
The blast destroyed concrete security barriers and brought down branches, with huge plumes of black smoke coming from a burning vehicle that appeared to have been the car bomb.
“It was a suicide bombing carried out in a car right in front of ISAF,” defense ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said, speaking from the military hospital.
“So far we have three dead, and 14 wounded, and we have evacuated them to the military hospital,” he said.
A statement from his office also gave a toll of three dead, but said 70 were wounded.
The police, however, could initially only confirm that one person had died.
“We know at this point that one person has been killed and 64 others have been wounded,” police criminal department investigation chief Sayyed Abdul Ghafor Sayedzada told reporters.
“Some of the wounded are in a bad condition. The bulk of them are civilians,” he said.
Most wounds were caused by shattered glass, a witness said.
Three or four ambulances could be seen leaving the heavily fortified base soon after the massive explosion, where the force of the blast had destroyed a large concrete barrier.
Italian troops were securing the site, he said.
Close to the site is the embassy of the US, with those of Spain and Italy also nearby.
The presidential palace is around 200m away and the residence of the Indian ambassador is also close.
A driver at the transport ministry along the same road said the heat from the burning car used to deliver the bomb had melted the tires of his vehicle.
“I had two female and one male colleague who were wounded and I was taking them to the hospital,” said the driver Abdul Raqib.
“As I passed by the explosion site it was still in flames, my tires melted. It was a car that was burning in flames,” he said.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahed, said the attack was carried out by a member of the militia.
The man had “detonated some 500kg of explosives packed into a Surf vehicle [SUV] outside the US embassy,” he said.
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