Kabul bomb blast kills 12 including 3 Americans

Flames rise from burning cars Sunday following a blast in Kabul. At least 12 people including three Americans were killed in a car-bombing which rocked a downtown area of the Afghan capital late Sunday. Police said the explosion had been caused by a car bomb in the Shar-e-Naw district in downtown Kabul -- an area crammed with United Nations offices and other international aid agencies. PHOTO: AFP

Three Americans and three Nepalis were among those killed in the blast, aimed at the offices of international security company DynCorp, which provides bodyguards for Afghan president Hamid Karzai and helps train the national police force.

Sunday's attack came less than 24 hours after another blast killed 10 people, including nine children, at a religious school in Paktia province, south of Kabul.

A senior Taliban commander said any city with a Western presence could be a target ahead of the Oct. 9 elections, which US ally Karzai is widely expected to win.

"We have started our operations from Kabul under new planning and preparation," said commander Mullah Daudullah, one of the 10 members of the Taliban council headed by Mullah Omar, an ally of Osama bin Laden.

"We will carry out more attacks and bombings in Kabul and many of our mujahideen are present in cities where the occupying forces of infidels are present," he told Reuters by satellite telephone.

The Kabul blast raised concern over already deteriorating security. Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in the past year -- including militants, soldiers, civilians, aid workers and election officials.

The US embassy in Kabul advised its citizens to avoid military facilities, national and international government buildings, crowded places such as bazaars and restaurants and internet cafes frequented by foreigners.

Staff at international organisations have been advised to lie low and increase security.

Analysts expect President Bush to cite the advent of democracy in Afghanistan as a foreign policy success as he seeks re-election himself in November.

Maj. Scott Nelson at the US military press center in Kabul said emergency services were still looking for bodies buried under the rubble of the DynCorp building.

Nato-led peacekeepers cordoned off the site, and Federal Bureau of Investigation officers based at the US embassy are leading the investigation.

The Taliban denied responsibility for Saturday's school blast, saying guerrillas were only targeting military centers or election staff.

Nelson said an improvised explosive device had been planted in the school and that the local authorities reported the academy's director went missing two days ago and they suspect he had been murdered.

The motive may have been some extremist group's anger at the modern curriculum taught in the madrassah, where classes for women were also held and funded by the International Committee of the Red Cross.