KABUL, Afghanistan, May 18, (Agencies): A Taleban suicide car bomber struck a Nato convoy in the Afghan capital Tuesday, killing six troops, five of them American, officials said. Twelve Afghan civilians also died — many of them on a public bus in rush-hour traffic.
The powerful blast occurred on a major Kabul thoroughfare that runs by the ruins of a one-time royal palace and government ministries. It wrecked nearly 20 vehicles, including five SUVs in the Nato convoy, and scattered debris and body parts across the wide boulevard. The body of woman in a burqa was smashed against the window of the bus.
The attack — the deadliest for Nato troops in the capital since September — comes despite a ramped up effort by Afghan authorities to intercept would-be attackers and better secure a capital city that saw a spate of brazen attacks this winter.
In the last such attack in February, suicide bombers stormed two small downtown hotels and killed 16 people. Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a phone call from an undisclosed location that the bomber was a man from Kabul and his car was packed with 1,650 pounds (750 kilograms) of explosives. The target of the attack was the foreign convoy, he said.
US troops and Afghan police held a security cordon around wrecked vehicles at the blast site in the west of the city. Emergency workers zipped the dead into body bags and lifted the injured into ambulances. “I saw one person laying on the ground with no head,” said Mirza Mohammad, who was on his way to work when the blast happened up the road.
Police officer Wahidullah, who goes by one name, said he saw the body of woman in a burqa smashed up against the window of the bus.
“Everywhere was dead bodies,” Wahidullah said. At least 12 Afghan civilians died and 47 were wounded — most of them in the bus, the Interior Ministry said.
Nato said six of its service members were killed in the attack, and US forces spokesman Col Wayne Shanks confirmed that five of those were American. The nationality of the sixth was not immediately disclosed.
It was the deadliest attack for Nato in the capital since a September suicide bombing that killed six Italian soldiers. The attack comes as Nato readies a major offensive in the southern province of Kandahar, a major Taleban stronghold.
Crashed
Meanwhile, Afghan and Nato rescuers on Tuesday located the area where an Afghan passenger plane crashed with 43 people on board, including three Britons and an American, an official said.
More than 24 hours after the plane lost radio contact over the treacherous Hindu Kush mountains the chances of finding survivors appeared slim, as anguished relatives gathered at the foot of the mountain-pass near Salang.
The ageing Pamir Airways Antonov 24 turboprop was en route from the northern province of Kunduz to Kabul when it came down in bad weather. Officials said it was too early to judge the cause of the crash.
“We have managed to locate the crash area,” Yalda Natiq, head of communications at the transport ministry, told AFP.
“It is in northern Salang but due to fog, bad weather and poor visibility the reconnaissance plane and helicopters now cannot pinpoint the wreckage,” she added. The area is one of harsh mountain terrain.
Asked whether signals from the plane’s black box had been picked up, Natiq said: “The systems show where the crash area is and helicopters are flying over the area to locate the wreckage now.”