Suicide blast in Kabul
July 22, 2014
Police said the explosion in central Kabul on Tuesday killed at least four people close to the capital's civilian and military airport.
"The explosives concealed in a motorbike were detonated inside the counter-narcotics department, in which four people, including foreigners, were killed and six others injured," a police official told the DPA news agency on condition of anonymity.
Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said the explosion took place at the gate of a foreign military base adjacent to the police department.
"As we know, the incident has casualties who are mainly foreign citizens," Stanekzai said. The nationalities of the foreign advisers killed were not immediately clear. An Afghan interpreter was the fourth victim.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack.
"In this successful attack up to 15 invader soldiers were killed or wounded and many vehicles were damaged," Mujahid said.
Kabul International Airport is used for both civilian and military purposes. Soldiers, police, guard towers and checkpoints guard the complex. Despite frequent rocket attacks on the facility, frontal assaults are comparatively rare. Last Thursday, however, security forces repelled a daring attack on the airport claimed by the Taliban. The four-hour skirmish at the site halted civilian flights at the airport.
On Monday, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry reported heavy fighting between Taliban insurgents and security forces in recent days, with a total of more than 70 people - mostly militants - killed in clashes in several Afghan provinces.
msh/dr (dpa, Reuters)