British embassy vehicle hit in suicide attack in Kabul; at least 5 killed
A suicide bomber on motorcycle blew himself up within a convoy of foreign troops in the east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday. Medics report of five dead and 34 injured. The UK Foreign Office confirms one Briton is among those killed.
"A British embassy vehicle was attacked. There are some injuries. We are working with Afghan authorities," the spokesman told the AFP news agency.
At least five people were killed, two of them foreigners, and many bystanders were wounded, Reuters reports, citing a witness who saw at least three bodies from the blast in a nearby hospital. Their nationalities are as yet unconfirmed, but one is believed to be a British national.
The blast was powerful enough to wound 33 Afghan bystanders and destroy three cars on Kabul's Jalalabad Road, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said, Reuters reports.
Afghan Health Ministry spokesman Kaniska Turkistani said there were at least five civilians dead and 34 wounded.
An AFP reporter witnessed a badly-shaken foreign passenger asking Afghan police for help for his injured colleagues, among them an Afghan national who was inside a British vehicle and suffered a serious arm injury. Law enforcement officers at the scene said that blood-smeared passengers from the convoy had been taken to hospital.
Sky News reports that two Afghan civilians were killed and a number of British embassy staff injured, according to Foreign Office officials.
Local media maintains the suicide bomber was specifically targeting vehicles from the British embassy which made up a part of a larger convoy.
The Afghan Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack. A suicide bomber "targeted foreign invading forces" and many were killed and wounded, claimed Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a text message.
A wave of attacks has hit Afghanistan in anticipation of coalition troops’ withdrawal from the country after 13 years of military operations against the Taliban.
#Kabul blast updates: Suicide bomber targeted a British Embassy vehicle, eye witnesses to TOLOnews:4 civilians killed pic.twitter.com/xld3zBEVUz
— Muslim Shirzad (@MuslimShirzad) November 27, 2014
Earlier today two Afghan police officers died in a terrorist attack in the northwestern province of Badghis. Seven people were injured in the same attack, including three law enforcement officials.
Over the past week the Islamist Taliban has conducted a vast series of terrorist acts throughout Afghanistan.
On Monday, another bomb in Kabul killed two U.S. soldiers as they were travelling in their vehicle.
Just on Sunday a powerful explosion during a volleyball match in southeastern Paktika Province claimed the lives of 57 spectators and left over 60 people injured.
The Taliban, ousted from power by a US-led invasion in 2001, has high hopes to return to power after the withdrawal of the coalition troops.
