Kabir Amiri, a spokesman for Kabul’s hospitals, said 11 people, including a foreigner, had been killed and 66 wounded, but he did not include at least two of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation contractors. In a statement, the company said it extended “its thoughts and prayers to all involved and to their families and loved ones” and declined to comment further.
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The attack struck near the private Shinozada hospital, the sound of the powerful blast roaring throughout the capital.
No group has said it carried out the attack, although in recent months Kabul has been regularly targeted by the Taliban in a series of bombings.
The Taliban, who are fighting to re-establish hard-line Islamist rule more than 13 years after the U.S.-led military intervention toppled their regime, denied it was behind the attack.
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri’s recently pledged his group’s allegiance to Mansour, in a move which could bolster his accession amid the growing infighting within the Afghan militant movement.
“One Resolute Support (NATO) contracted civilian was killed in the attack and two others died of wounds as a result of the attack”, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation said in a statement, without specifying their nationalities.
During rush hour, a suicide auto bomb explosion in the Macroyan residential area of Kabul came relatively close to the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan’s capital.
By the blast, at least 1 armored auto in the convoy had been damaged.
It was not immediately clear whether the three contractors were among the 10 killed. A spokesperson for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation said the contractors were not Afghan nationals, but did not identify their nationalities.
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Xinhua reporter at the site of the deadly bombing saw that women and children are also among the casualties.
