Wednesday 12 January 2011 07.29 GMT
- Article history
A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up next to a minibus carrying intelligence service staff in the Afghan capital today, killing at least two people and wounding more than 20.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the rush-hour blast, which shattered the windows of dozens of houses and buildings on a busy street in the western part of Kabul.
Afghan security officials are frequently the target of bombings and shootings. 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 today's bomber struck the bus as it carried the intelligence service employees to work, killing two. The head of Kabul hospitals at the public health ministry, Kabir Amir, said one body had been received so far, and that more than 20 people had been wounded.
Police and intelligence service officers cordoned off the site of the explosion, where the suicide bomber's body and his destroyed motorbike lay next to the damaged bus.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the blast.
Nato sent more than 30,000 extra troops into Afghanistan last year to put pressure on the Taliban's traditional strongholds in the south, but the insurgents have extended their operations elsewhere, striking across the north and east.
An extra contingent of 1,400 US marines is to be deployed in the coming months in the southern province of Helmand, which along with neighbouring Kandahar province have experienced some of the fiercest fighting.
Today's suicide bombing was the second claimed by the Taliban this week. On Monday, a suicide attacker blew up his car next to a border police convoy near Spin Boldak, a Kandahar provincial town bordering Pakistan, killing two officers and a civilian.
No comments:
Post a Comment