Briton among three killed in Kabul attack

KABUL: Three people including a British national working with the European Union police were killed Sunday when a Taleban militant rammed his explosives-laden car into a foreign convoy in Kabul, the latest attack of Afghanistan’s fighting season.

At least 18 people were wounded in the assault, which comes three days after 14 people -- mostly foreigners -- were killed in a Taleban attack on a Kabul guest house that trapped dozens attending a concert.
The suicide bomber targeted the foreign convoy, which included two vehicles of the European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL), during the Sunday morning rush hour near Kabul airport.
“A suicide bomber detonated his Toyota sedan targeting a foreign forces convoy near Kabul airport today at 9:00 am,” Kabul police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi told AFP.
“The target of the attacker was the foreign forces convoy. So far we have two women dead, 18 others wounded, all of them civilians,” he said, adding that three children were among those wounded.
EUPOL in a statement confirmed that one of the mission’s vehicles was hit by the explosion near Kabul airport resulting in the death of one security personnel.
Two mission members who were also in the vehicle suffered injuries which are not believed to be life-threatening, EUPOL said in the statement.
In London, UK foreign secretary Philip Hammond confirmed that the victim was a British national and “strongly condemned (the Taleban’s) cowardly actions”.
“I can confirm that a British security contractor is among those killed in the attack,” Hammond said in a statement. “His family has been informed and my thoughts are with them at this incredibly difficult time.”
An AFP photographer at the scene saw troops hauling away the body of a person in military-style uniform, pulled out from the twisted wreck of a badly damaged sedan.
Taleban insurgents, who have stepped up attacks on foreign targets after launching their spring offensive late last month, claimed responsibility for the car bombing.