A foreigner was among 12 people killed in the blast, with 66 others – including women and children – wounded, health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said on Twitter.
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“One Resolute Support (NATO) US contractor was killed and two Resolute Support US contractors died of wounds as a result of an… attack on their convoy in Kabul”, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation said in a statement. In an email to journalists, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied his group was responsible.
“A suicide vehicle bomb struck the Fourth Macroyan residential neighbourhood of Kabul city and there have been some casualties”, Kabul police spokesman Abdullah Karimi told AFP.
Minutes after the explosion, British and U.S. soldiers arrived at the scene in armored vehicles. The Taliban often don’t claim responsibility for attacks that kill or maim large numbers of Afghan civilians, the AP says. 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. However, they have stepped up their assaults on Afghan security forces since U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops ended their combat mission in the country a year ago .
The Taliban is fighting to overthrow the foreign-backed government, expel foreign forces from Afghanistan and impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
In Saturday’s bombing, according to eye witness, Ahmad Reshad, at least 10 cars were badly damaged and the windowpanes of private hospital the Shinozad clinic and houses and apartments around were smashed.
The blast shattered the windows of Shinozada hospital, which is described as Afghanistan’s first private hospital.
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Authorities say the blast Saturday in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killed at least 12 people and wounded 66.
