By DPA,
Kabul : A suicide attack against an Italian military convoy shook the Afghan capital Thursday, leaving 10 Afghan civilians and six Italian soldiers dead, officials said.
“The attack left 10 civilians dead,” General Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for defence ministry told DPA. More than 50 others were wounded, he said.
The defence ministry in Rome and the Italian military in Afghanistan said six of its soldiers, members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), were killed in the attack, which took place in the eastern part of the city on the road leading to Kabul’s international airport.
“Three dead bodies, all of them civilians, were brought to three hospitals,” Farid Rahid, a spokesman of the public health ministry said earlier. Thirty-eight people were wounded, he added.
The NATO-led ISAF in Kabul confirmed that the attack was against one of its military convoys.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid took responsibility for the attack and said it had been carried out by Hadayatullah, a resident of Kabul. He claimed 13 Italian soldiers were killed in the blast.
The explosion destroyed at least five cars and damaged buildings on both sides of the road. The blast occurred some 300 metres from the US embassy in Kabul.
Earlier this month, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle close to a NATO convoy near the military base at Kabul airport, also in the eastern part of the city, killing several civilians.