Afghanistan attack kills 1, wounds 2

November 13, 2010|Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide car bomber blew himself up as a NATO convoy passed his vehicle on the outskirts of the capital yesterday, killing one civilian and wounding two service members, officials said.

The Afghan civilian was killed in the blast near the entrance to a coalition base south of Kabul, NATO said. An Afghan soldier and a NATO service member were wounded in the explosion, the Afghan Defense Ministry said.

The Hizb-i-Islami group that operates under the leadership of warlord and former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar claimed responsibility for the attack.

“The bombing has been carried out by one of our men,’’ Harun Zarghun, a spokesman for Hizb-i-Islami, told the Associated Press. “The attack is part of our campaign to oust American forces from Afghanistan.’’

The attack slightly damaged a Humvee but destroyed the vehicle driven by the suicide bomber, AP Television News footage showed.

Although suicide bomb attacks are becoming commonplace in southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan, where NATO is fighting the Taliban, increased security has made them less frequent in the capital.

In eastern Afghanistan, a NATO service member was killed in an insurgent attack, the coalition said.

Neither the nationality of the service member nor any other details were released. So far this year, 626 US and international troops have died in Afghanistan, according to a count by the Associated Press.

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