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Suicide attacker hits US embassy convoy in Kabul

A suicide attacker rammed an explosives-filled car into a US embassy convoy in the Afghan capital Kabul yesterday, wounding some embassy staff and guards and at least three Afghan passersby, officials said.

The attack on the road to the eastern city of Jalalabad was the first suicide bombing inside Kabul this year, after several deadly blasts last year blamed on Taliban insurgents.

"There was a vehicle-borne IED [improvised explosive device] that struck a US embassy convoy on Jalalabad road," US embassy spokesman Joe Mellott said.

"There were some injuries, including one seriously injured who has been evacuated for treatment," he said, adding that US Ambassador Ronald Neumann was not in the convoy.

A public health ministry director, Salam Jalali, said three Afghans were injured in the blast and evacuated to local hospitals for treatment.

Jalali said initial reports also said six foreigners were hurt, but this was not confirmed by the embassy.

An investigator at the scene and an eyewitness said they had seen at least one child being taken to hospital by ambulance.

An Afghan blacksmith who runs a workshop near the explosion site said the attacker appeared to have hit the convoy from the opposite direction.

"I saw a person being thrown from one of the vehicles. I saw an Afghan child wounded and taken to hospital," said the blacksmith, named only Esmatullah.

Foreign troops immediately sealed off the area.

The vehicle used in the attack was still burning about half an hour after the attack and damaged, bullet-proof, four-by-four vehicles were pulled to the side of the road.

Many of the suicide blasts in Afghanistan last year were on the same road, which is often used by troops travelling to the main US coalition base at Bagram, about 60km from the capital, and passes various other bases.

One of the deadliest of a rash of suicide attacks in Kabul last year was meters away from the heavily barricaded entrance to the US embassy. It left 16 people dead, including two US troops.
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