A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up next to a minibus carrying intelligence service employees in the Afghan capital yesterday, killing at least two people and wounding at least 20, authorities said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the powerful rush-hour blast, which shattered the windows of dozens of houses and buildings on the busy street in the western part of Kabul.
Afghan security officials are frequently the target of bombings and shootings, although over the past few months the nation’s capital has been largely spared the worst of the major attacks in the country. Last month, two insurgents strapped with explosives ambushed a bus carrying Afghan army officers on the outskirts of Kabul, killing five and wounding nine.
Mohammad Zahir, the capital’s chief of criminal investigation, said yesterday’s bomber struck the bus as it carried the intelligence service employees to work, killing two of them and wounding another six.
The head of Kabul hospitals at the Public Health Ministry, Kabir Amir, said the hospitals had received one body so far and that more than 20 people had been wounded.
Ambulances with sirens blaring rushed past as police and intelligence service officers cordoned off the blast site, where the suicide bomber’s body and his destroyed motorbike lay next to the damaged bus.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement condemning the blast.
The Taliban has proven resilient despite the push of the US-led military coalition, which has been fighting in Afghanistan for more than nine years. Although NATO poured more than 30,000 extra troops into the country last year to pressure the insurgents’ traditional strongholds in the south, the Taliban have boosted their operations elsewhere, striking across the north and east.
An extra contingent of 1,400 US Marines are to be deployed in the coming months in the southern province of Helmand, which along with the neighboring province of Kandahar have seen some of the fiercest fighting.
Yesterday’s suicide bombing was the second in a week claimed by the Taliban. On Monday, a suicide attacker blew up his car next to a border police convoy near Spin Boldak, a town in Kandahar Province on the border with Pakistan, killing two officers and a civilian.
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