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Taliban claim blast in Afghan capital
Sat Aug 15, 2009 2:57am EDT
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By Peter Graff and David Fox
KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban claimed responsibility for a large suicide car bomb that detonated on Saturday in the heart of the Afghan capital's most secure neighborhood just five days before an election the Islamist group has vowed to disrupt.
Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said at least four people were killed and 91 wounded in the blast, which hit outside the sprawling headquarters of the NATO-led international force, near the U.S. embassy, in Kabul.
A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force said there were some ISAF casualties. An official with the Afghan Ministry of Transport, whose headquarters bore the brunt of the blast, said dozens of employees were hurt by flying glass.
"Unfortunately, there are casualties," said Canadian Brigadier General Eric Tremblay, an ISAF spokesman. "I am not going to go into numbers. There's Afghan civilians and there are ISAF military."
The blast shattered windows in the area and shook buildings in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, home to most major foreign embassies and organizations in the capital.
It also rattled confidence in an August 20 presidential election which pits incumbent Hamid Karzai against 35 challengers. Two recent polls have Karzai with a comfortable lead over nearest challenger Abdullah Abdullah, but not enough to avoid a second round run-off.
The Taliban, stronger than at any time since they were driven from power eight years ago, have vowed to strike polling stations and threatened reprisals against voters.
"The target was the U.S. embassy, but we could not reach it," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
BOLD ATTACKS
Violence has surged recently, with Taliban fighters staging a handful of bold attacks on provincial government buildings in the south and east, and also launching raids in once-quiet areas in the north and west.
Saturday's suicide bomb attack was the first in Kabul since January, when the German embassy was targeted.
Taliban fighters also stormed government buildings in the capital on February 11, killing 19 people in an audacious commando-style attack.
Kabul has also recently come under attack by rockets.
The vehicle carrying Saturday's bomb appeared to have got through two lightly manned checkpoints before attempting to drive the wrong way through a major reinforced security post, where it was stopped.
ISAF's Tremblay said the suicide bomber "entered our defensive system and was blocked by the Afghan army" and then decided to detonate the vehicle. "It was an isolated attack. It's not a complex attack," he said. Continued...
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