DTN News - AFGHAN WAR NEWS: 3 Coalition Troops Killed in Kabul Car Bombing
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth + AirForce Times + Associated Press - Kabul (Afghanistan)(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - December 28, 2013: A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of international troops in an eastern district of the Afghan capital on Friday, killing three service members and wounding six Afghans, officials said.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the insurgent group was behind the attack. Television images showed remains of the exploded car littering the street, and several armored vehicles stopped nearby.
The bomber struck the convoy about a half mile from NATO’s Camp Phoenix base, Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanakzai, who reported the Afghan injuries.
Two of the three troops killed were from Slovakia, according to Agence France-Presse.
Ambulances, firefighters and armoured vehicles from the ISAF mission rushed to the blast site, which was quickly cordoned off by police.
"I was in my bakery shop when I heard a bang that shattered all the windows," Nehmatullah, who uses only one name, told AFP news agency.
"I saw at least two bodies lying on the street and covered in blood, then came two vehicles of foreign forces and the soldiers pulled out two bodies of foreigners from a damaged black SUV."
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Friday attack in a message on its Twitter account.
"A number of foreign forces were killed and wounded and many vehicles were also destroyed," the Taliban spokesman said.
The attack came as Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai deliberated over an agreement, allowing US forces to stay in the country beyond 2014.
Many Afghans, including advisers and a gathering of 3,000 prominent Afghans, have urged Karzai to sign the pact as they worry about security after 2014 when most foreign forces are leaving.
Karzai said he did not want to sign until after a presidential election scheduled for April next year.
The International Security Assistance Force didn’t provide details on the identities or nationalities of the three service members killed.
Twelve coalition troops have died in Afghanistan so far this month, including six U.S. soldiers who died in a helicopter crash Dec. 17.
So far this year 151 coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press
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