A U.S. official says all 13 NATO service members killed in the suicide bombing were American troops.
An attacker in an Afghan military uniform in the southern part of the country also turned his weapon on members of the U.S.-led military coalition, killing two before he was killed in return fire.
And in a third incident in Eastern Afghanistan, a female suicide bomber wearing a burqa tried to enter a government building. She was killed, according to local news reports, when guards became suspicious of her behavior and opened fire, prompting her to detonate her explosives.
She was the only casualty in the incident, which occurred near the local branch of the National Directorate of Security, the country’s spy agency, according to Abdul Sabor Allayar, Kunar province’s deputy police chief, although two agency employees and two civilians were wounded.
The Kabul car bombing took place at 11:30 a.m. on Darulaman Road, one of the capital’s busiest, which runs past parliament and Darulaman Palace -– or “abode of peace” -- built in the 1920s in a bid to modernize the country. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in text messages to media organizations.
The coalition did not disclose the exact number of casualties or their nationalities in the Kabul attack other than to say there were “several” NATO and Afghan deaths. It’s an alliance policy to notify family members before the media and let individual nations take the lead in releasing sensitive information.
The Afghan Interior Ministry reported that the Kabul blast killed at least three Afghan civilians and one policeman, but said it didn’t know the number of NATO casualties.
NATO said 13 service members were killed, but a U.S. official confirmed they were all Americans. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The Afghan Ministry of Interior said three Afghan civilians and one policeman also died in the attack. Eight other Afghans, including two children and four other civilians, were wounded, said Kabir Amiri, head of Kabul hospitals.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, as well as for another suicide bombing outside a government intelligence office in the northwest province of Kunar.
The attack occurred near the entrance of the American University and the nearby landmark Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings.
NATO and Afghan forces sealed off the area as fire trucks and ambulances rushed in. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw two NATO helicopters landing to airlift casualties, while coalition troops using loudspeakers ordered bystanders to evacuate the area.
It was the deadliest single attack against the U.S.-led coalition since the Taliban shot down a NATO helicopter on Aug. 6 in an eastern Afghan province, killing 30 U.S. troops, most elite Navy SEALs, and eight Afghans.
In other violence, a man wearing an Afghan military uniform opened fire on a joint NATO-Afghan base, killing three NATO service members in Uruzgan province, an area in the restive south that is traditionally viewed as the Taliban's stronghold.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said officials were investigating whether the shooter, who was killed in the incident, was a member of the Afghan army or a militant wearing an army uniform.
All about: Kabul, Afganistan, American
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