KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber struck a van or minibus carrying foreign workers on a main road in central Kabul early Tuesday morning, killing all of the passengers. A police official at the scene put the death toll at 14, 10 of them French citizens.
The official, from District 15 in Kabul, where the blast took place, said that 12 of the victims were in the vehicle targeted by the bomber, and two others were on the street. He said the victims were civilian workers for a foreign company. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
French soldiers could be seen at the site of the blast afterward. At least nine bodies, their limbs scattered, were seen lying on the road. It appeared that the dead were Westerners, judging from their clothes — T-shirts and jeans — and their remains. One victim's blond hair was somehow untouched by the blast, which left a crater almost four feet across and a foot deep.
"A Toyota Corolla rigged as a car bomb was detonated by one of its occupants near a minibus that was carrying passengers," said the Kabul police chief, Mohammed Ayub Salangi.
A spokesman for an insurgent group, Hezb-i-Islami, claimed responsibility for the bombing and said it was carried out by an 18-year-old woman. "We claim credit for the attack by a martyrdom-seeking mujahid, an 18-year-old girl named Fatima, from Kabul, and the attack has been conducted in response to the film insulting the Prophet Muhammad and Islam," said Zubir Siddiqi, a spokesman for the group, who was reached by telephone.
Suicide bombings carried out by women are highly unusual in Afghanistan.
Mr. Siddiqi spoke for the extremist branch of Hezb-i-Islami, headed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyr, which fights against both the Taliban and the Afghan government. A moderate branch of the group has prominent members in the government, and Hezb-i-Islami has been seen as the insurgent group most likely to enter peace talks with the government.
The explosion Tuesday took place on a road leading from the civilian entrance to the airport toward northern Kabul, near three adjacent wedding halls. The victims' vehicle appeared to have been heading toward the airport. The Kabul police, Afghan intelligence special forces and some Westerners in plain clothes rushed to the scene, but no one arrived in the first hour and a half after the blast to claim the bodies or identify them.
Scattered near the scene were airplane emergency information cards, apparently from the victims' vehicle. Three nearby Afghan cars were damaged.
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and SANGAR RAHIMI 18 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/world/asia/bomber-strikes-vehicle-carrying-foreigners-in-kabul.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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