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Taliban claim major suicide car blast in Kabul

© RIA Novosti . Danil KolodinKabul
Kabul  - Sputnik International
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The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car explosion in the Afghan capital on Saturday, which killed at least seven people and injured dozens more.

KABUL, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car explosion in the Afghan capital on Saturday, which killed at least seven people and injured dozens more.

The death toll rose as three people died in hospital, the Defense Ministry said, adding more than 90 people were wounded in the explosion that went off outside the headquarters of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, but those were not the final figures.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said on the telephone that the Toyota Land Cruiser had been laden with 500 kilograms of TNT and targeted the U.S. Embassy.

The ministry said four Afghan troops and a lawmaker were wounded in the attack that was staged days before the presidential election in the country, which the radical movement has pledged to disrupt.

It is not clear how many ISAF military were injured. Eyewitnesses said two ISAF vehicles were in the epicenter of the blast.

The blast occurred in the central Wazir Akbar Khan district, home to foreign embassies and organizations in the capital, when people were arriving at work. Many buildings were reported to have been damaged.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan recently, with Talibs, toppled in the 2001 U.S.-led campaign, staging attacks on provincial government officials, police and troops across the country.

 

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