US troops among Kabul blast victims
Two American soldiers are among 15 people killed in a car bomb attack in Kabul, officials say.
The suicide attack on a convoy also killed four foreign contractors and nine Afghan civilians.
Cmdr Bill Speaks, a spokesman for the US Defence Secretary, confirmed that two US soldiers in the Nato military coalition were killed in the attack.
Islamic militant group, Hizb-e-Islami, claimed responsibility for the early morning attack, saying it had formed a new unit to attack foreign forces.
At least two children also died in the powerful explosion in eastern Kabul. The attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into the convoy as it passed the home of an Afghan politician.
Officials said more than 30 people were wounded.
Kabul provincial police spokesman Hashmad Stanakzi said: “The explosion was very big. It set the nearby buildings on fire.”
Kabul deputy police chief Daud Amin said it was difficult to immediately estimate the number of dead because the blast shredded many of the victims. “We saw two dead bodies of children on the ground, but the rest of the bodies were scattered in pieces around.”
A spokesman for the miltant group, Haroon Zarghoon, said one of the movement’s operatives carried out the attack on what he described as two vehicles of American advisers. He claimed that most of the American advisers were killed and their vehicles destroyed.
Hizb-e-Islami is headed by 65-year-old former warlord Gubuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister and one-time US ally who is now listed as a terrorist by Washington. The militia has thousands of fighters and followers across the country’s north and east.
The attack was the second in eight months claimed by Hizb-e-Islami. In September, the militant group claimed a suicide car bombing that killed least 12 people.
