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Suicide bomber kills nine in attack on Afghan troops

A suicide bomber dressed in an army uniform rammed his motorcycle into a fleet of buses carrying Afghan army officers yesterday, killing at least nine people and wounding 28 near the capital Kabul, officials said.

The attacker struck where officers and soldiers of the Afghan National Army were waiting outside the training facility to take buses home, ministry spokesman General Mohammed Zaher Azimi said.

"It was a suicide attack," Azimi said, adding that most of the dead were army officers.

"The person was wearing an army uniform and was on a motorbike which he rammed into the convoy of the National Army officers," he said.

Azimi said 10 people had been killed, including the bomber. Another ministry official said eight of the dead were soldiers and another a civilian.

Such suicide attacks are rare in Kabul. The last major explosion in Kabul was in August last year, when a car bomb tore through the office of a US security contractor that provided security for President Hamid Karzai, killing about 10 people. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for yesterday's attack, which came 10 days after Afghanistan held its first parliamentary elections in more than three decades.

The blast occurred at the Kabul Military Training Center set up by US international forces to train a new national army and was also close to a base of NATO peacekeepers.

Mohammad Akbar, the police chief of the eastern city district where the blast took place, said the attacker struck the buses in the car park of the training center.

Four minibuses that had been carrying soldiers were burned in the attack, witnesses said.

Witness Mohammad Gul, 32, said he saw a motorcyclist ride into the car park. "Suddenly there was a huge explosion. It was deafening and I still can't hear properly," he said.
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