16 killed,55 injured in Kabul suicide attack

The suicide bomber rammed his explosives-filled car into two Italian military vehicles about midday,Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said in Rome. He said six of those aboard were killed and four wounded.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility,saying in a text message that one of their militants carried out the suicide attack against NATO forces.

The explosion shattered windows in buildings about half a mile (a kilometre) away and shook offices and homes throughout the central Afghan neighbourhood that houses a number of embassies and military bases.

Charred vehicles littered the area around the blast site – a road just off a main traffic circle that leads to the airport. An Associated Press reporter saw at least six vehicles burned,including an Italian Humvee,and two burned bodies that were later covered with plastic sheets.

The Interior Ministry said 10 Afghan civilians were killed and 55 wounded.

Shopkeeper Feraudin Ansari said he felt the blast in his store about 50 yards (meters) from the site. Windows were broken in all the shops on the street. He said he was angry at NATO forces for patrolling in downtown areas.

“Why are you patrolling inside the city? There is no al-Qaida,no Taliban here,” 25-year-old Ansari said. “My shop is destroyed and my head hurts from the blast.”

Violence has increased as the US sent thousands more troops to push back the resurgent Taliban and bolster security for last month’s presidential election. The Taliban made good on threats to disturb the vote,and militant attacks have risen not just in the group’s southern heartland but also in the north and in Kabul and surrounding areas.

The increased fighting and massive fraud allegations threatening the legitimacy of the election have raised questions about whether the US and NATO are using the right tactics to win the war. Final results from the vote are likely to be delayed for weeks while fraud is investigated.

On Wednesday,US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry took a public walkaround a Kabul neighborhood,saying international officials need to spend less time behind blast walls and more time interacting with the Afghan people.

The commanding officer of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan,Gen. Stanley McChrystal,has called for the military to be more engaged with the Afghan people in order to better protect them from Taliban insurgents,and hopefully win their trust.

Military troops typically travel in well-armed convoys in the capital. Standard protocol until recently was to wave cars aside and speed through the city streets,though a recent directive has ordered them to obey Afghan traffic rules.

On Sept. 8,a car bomb exploded near the entrance to the military airport in Kabul in an attack on a NATO convoy that killed three civilians. The Taliban also claimed responsibility for that blast.