Suicide attack in Afghan capital kills 12, injures 84 others available (4th Lead)

Oct 8, 2009, 8:12 GMT

   Kabul - A suicide attack Thursday near the Indian embassy in downtown Kabul killed 12 people and injured 84 others, officials said.

   The Afghan Interior Ministry said the attack during Thursday's rush hour killed 11 civilians and one police officer, while 76 civilians and eight policemen guarding the highly fortified embassy were injured.

   Zemarai Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesman, confirmed that the attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber.

   Police officers at the scene of the bombing also said the explosion was caused by a suicide car bombing, pointing to parts of a mangled vehicle as evidence.

   A source from the embassy, which is located near the Interior Ministry, said there were no deaths among Indian nationals but a wall surrounding the embassy compound had been destroyed and embassy windows shattered.

   Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi that the attack was directed at the Indian mission but all its personnel and staff were safe. She said three members of the Indo-Tibetan border police force that guards the mission were injured.

   India's top Foreign Ministry official said the intensity of the blast was similar to an attack in July 2008 on the Kabul embassy. It killed more than 50 people, including two Indian diplomats.

   She said stringent security measures taken since then had prevented greater damage from occurring Thursday.

   Afghan officials did not yet know the target of the attack, Bashary said. 'There is the Interior Ministry in the area, there is the Indian embassy in the area and there are other government buildings in the area,' he said.

   Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the blast and his office said in a statement that the president deemed the attack 'a terrorist act against our innocent people.'

   Sayed Kabir Amiri, an official at the Public Health Ministry, had said earlier that bodies of at least four people and 67 injured civilians were brought to Kabul hospitals.

   Kabul has seen a series of suicide attacks in the past two months. At least three suicide bombers have been unleashed by Taliban militants on NATO-led forces in the city since August, but most of the victims were Afghan civilians.

   In an attack last month, six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians were killed when a suicide bomber targeted an Italian military convoy on the road to Kabul airport.

   No group immediately took responsibility for Thursday's attack.

   Footage from Tolo, a private television channel, showed that two armoured vehicles, with one of them having a UN number plate, were damaged in the attack, but it was not known if any of the occupants were hurt. Several shops in a recently built market nearby also were rattled by the blast.