Kabul car bomb kills 3 NATO contractors

At least 12 people including three NATO contractors were killed on Saturday when a suicide car bomber struck a foreign forces convoy, officials said, underlining the security situation in Kabul.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, which struck outside a civilian hospital in Kabul following a wave of fatal bombings earlier this month that rattled the city. The piercing explosion in a residential Kabul neighbourhood reverberated around the city and left a trail of devastation. 

A foreigner was among 12 people killed in the blast, with 66 others — including women and children — wounded, health ministry spokesman Wahidullah <g data-gr-id="16">Mayar</g> said on Twitter. He did not give the nationality of the foreigner.

Senior health official Sayed Kabir Amiri confirmed that toll from the attack, which comes as Taliban insurgents escalate their annual summer offensive against the US-backed Afghan government. “One Resolute Support (NATO) contracted civilian was killed in the attack and two others died of wounds as a result of the attack,” NATO said in a statement, without specifying their nationalities.

Fraidoon Obaidi, the head of Kabul’s Criminal Investigation Department, said officials were investigating the bombing. The loud explosion prompted the heavily-fortified US embassy, a few kilometres away in the heart of Kabul, to sound its emergency sirens.