Police yesterday blamed al-Qaeda for twin suicide bombings against NATO peacekeepers in the capital, as the death toll rose to eight with more bodies found in a ditch, and security forces searched houses for more suspected attackers.
Police commander General Mohammed Akbar said the bodies of the two suicide attackers appeared to those of Arabs.
"Al-Qaeda is definitely behind this attack," Akbar said. "Only al-Qaeda has the capability to do this."
Hours after the attacks late on Monday, a purported Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility.
If al-Qaeda is confirmed to also have a hand in it, it would reinforce fears that the terror network is still working with the Taliban, which US-led forces ousted from power in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden.
Such seemingly coordinated assaults are unprecedented in Afghanistan and were the first major attack on foreign troops in Kabul in a year.
They came during the deadliest year of rebel violence since the ouster of the Taliban, and have reinforced fears that insurgents are copying tactics used in Iraq.
Akbar said police scouring the scene of the second suicide car bombing found six more burned bodies lying in a ditch.
Major Andrew Elmes, a spokesman for NATO's peacekeeping force, said the bodies were believed to be those of Afghans.
An Afghan child was also killed in the second bombing. In the initial blast, a German peacekeeper died.
The new deaths brought the death toll to eight, in addition to the deaths of the two attackers.
Peacekeepers fatally shot three other men as they raced in a car toward the scene, fearing it was another suicide attack.
Kabul, which is home to about 3,000 foreigners and patrolled by thousands of NATO peacekeepers, had been regarded as one of the country's safest places, despite a flurry of kidnappings over the past year.
UN spokesman Adrian Edwards said the world body had gone to a heightened state of alert in the city and only essential staff were allowed to come to work.
Fears of more attacks has also prompted NATO's peacekeeping force to go on a higher state of alert, Elmes said.
Road blocks have been set up around the city and police were searching houses for suspects.
"We're on alert but it's very hard to prevent suicide attacks with hundreds of vehicles on the roads," Akbar said.
The two bombings on Monday occurred within 90 minutes of each other on a 500m stretch of road near the headquarters of Afghan-UN election organizers.
At the first bombing, the body of the slain German soldier was lying on the ground under a crumpled armored Mercedes military vehicle. Bits of a Toyota Corolla sedan that the attacker used were strewn across the road.
The second suicide bombing set fire to a Greek military jeep and wounded three peacekeepers.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern at the upsurge in violence in Afghanistan and strongly condemned Monday's bombings.
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