KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – A Taliban suicide car bomber attacked a foreign motorcade just a couple hundred yards (meters) from the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday, unleashing a blast that injured at least 13 people and rattled nearby neighborhoods, police officials said.
Faird Afzalai, the chief of criminal investigations for Kabul’s police, said the bomber targeted a foreign convoy, but he did not immediately have further information about nationalities involved. Ashmat Stanikzai, a spokesman for the Kabul police who gave the wounded figure, could not immediately say if anyone was killed.
The blast happened on a busy road that runs from the U.S. Embassy to the airport, near the country’s Supreme Court. In the aftermath, Afghan and foreign troops secured the area as fire and rescue vehicles moved in. About a half dozen cars stood damaged, and investigators inspected an empty black SUV, its windows smashed and exterior pockmarked with shrapnel.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in an emailed statement to journalists. The international military coalition ISAF did not have any immediate information. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman did not answer her phone.
The attack comes as the country’s two presidential contenders continue negotiations to form some sort of national unity government.