[h=3]By NATHAN HODGE And HABIB KHAN TOTAKHIL[/h]KABUL—A suicide bomber Tuesday struck a minivan packed with workers for a foreign aviation firm near Kabul airport, killing at least 12 people in an attack that a militant group claimed was payback for the anti-Islam video posted on YouTube.
Ayob Salangi, Kabul's police chief, said the bomber targeted the van on the road to the airport around 6:30 a.m. local time. He said nine foreigners and three Afghan civilians were killed in the blast. Two members of the Afghan security forces were wounded. The nationalities of the foreigners, some of whom were women, were not immediately clear.
Hezb-e-Islami, the Islamist insurgent group led by anti-U.S. warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and loosely allied with the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the bombing. "This attack was in retaliation to the insult of Prophet Mohammad," said Haroon Zarghun, a spokesman for the militant group, referring to the video that has sparked violent anti-U.S. protests around the globe.
Mr. Zarghun claimed the bomber was a 20 to 22 year old girl named Fatemah. Hezb-e-Islami is much weaker than the Taliban, and rarely manages to carry out attacks in Kabul. The use of female suicide bombers is also very rare in Afghanistan. Hezb-e-Islami has been in peace talks with President Hamid Karzai's administration for years, and several senior former associates of Mr. Hekmatyar now serve in key positions in the Afghan government.
Hours after the attack the bodies of the victims were still visible at the scene of the bombing, which blew out the windows of a nearby wedding hall and scattered debris around a filling station. The force of the blast excavated a deep crater in the asphalt about as wide as a car axle.
A police officer on the scene said one of the victims was a local man on a motorcycle. The vehicle lay on the asphalt near the scene of the explosion. Police and emergency workers were still probing the wreckage around 9:00 a.m. local time.
A Western diplomat said the foreign victims of the blast were employees of a contract aviation company called ACS . Mr. Salangi also confirmed the name of the charter service as ACS.
Military and diplomatic operations in Afghanistan are supported by a wide range of contract aviation firms. Afghanistan has seen a number of attacks against high-profile Western and foreign targets, and tensions have risen in recent days over the release of the video.
Write to Nathan Hodge at [email protected]
Ayob Salangi, Kabul's police chief, said the bomber targeted the van on the road to the airport around 6:30 a.m. local time. He said nine foreigners and three Afghan civilians were killed in the blast. Two members of the Afghan security forces were wounded. The nationalities of the foreigners, some of whom were women, were not immediately clear.
Hezb-e-Islami, the Islamist insurgent group led by anti-U.S. warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and loosely allied with the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the bombing. "This attack was in retaliation to the insult of Prophet Mohammad," said Haroon Zarghun, a spokesman for the militant group, referring to the video that has sparked violent anti-U.S. protests around the globe.
Mr. Zarghun claimed the bomber was a 20 to 22 year old girl named Fatemah. Hezb-e-Islami is much weaker than the Taliban, and rarely manages to carry out attacks in Kabul. The use of female suicide bombers is also very rare in Afghanistan. Hezb-e-Islami has been in peace talks with President Hamid Karzai's administration for years, and several senior former associates of Mr. Hekmatyar now serve in key positions in the Afghan government.
Hours after the attack the bodies of the victims were still visible at the scene of the bombing, which blew out the windows of a nearby wedding hall and scattered debris around a filling station. The force of the blast excavated a deep crater in the asphalt about as wide as a car axle.
A police officer on the scene said one of the victims was a local man on a motorcycle. The vehicle lay on the asphalt near the scene of the explosion. Police and emergency workers were still probing the wreckage around 9:00 a.m. local time.
A Western diplomat said the foreign victims of the blast were employees of a contract aviation company called ACS . Mr. Salangi also confirmed the name of the charter service as ACS.
Military and diplomatic operations in Afghanistan are supported by a wide range of contract aviation firms. Afghanistan has seen a number of attacks against high-profile Western and foreign targets, and tensions have risen in recent days over the release of the video.
Write to Nathan Hodge at [email protected]