Kabul suicide bomb on NATO convoy kills eight civilians

KABUL: A powerful suicide car bomb targeting a NATO military convoy in Kabul killed eight Afghan civilians including two children on Thursday in the first major attack in the capital for more than two months.

Government officials said eight passers-by died in the explosion in the Shah Shaheed residential district in southeast Kabul, while the NATO coalition was unable to give details of any casualties.

Hezb-i-Islami, an insurgent group that is independent from Taliban militant forces, claimed responsibility for the attack.

One NATO sports utility vehicle was completely destroyed in the blast and surrounding streets were cordoned off as US troops arrived at the scene.

Schoolgirls fled the area in tears as the clean-up operation began.

"At around 8:00 am (0330 GMT) this morning, terrorists detonated an explosives-packed (Toyota) Corolla car near a convoy of foreign forces," Hashmat Stanikzai, the Kabul police spokesman, told.

Afghan health ministry official Sayed Kabir Amiri said local hospitals confirmed eight people had died and 37 were wounded, all of them civilians.

Two children aged six and ten were among the dead, he said. "Some of the bodies are badly damaged and can't be identified," he added.

Lieutenant Quenton Roehricht, a spokesman for NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force, confirmed coalition vehicles had been targeted in Kabul and said further information would be released shortly.

Police added that at least 10 houses had been severely damaged.