KABUL: At least 12 people including three Nato contractors were killed on Saturday when a suicide car bomber struck a foreign forces convoy, officials said, underlining the precarious security situation in the Afghan capital.

The Taliban denied responsibility for the blast, which struck outside a civilian hospital in Kabul following a wave of fatal bombings earlier this month that rattled the city.

The piercing explosion in a residential neighbourhood reverberated around Kabul and left a trail of devastation, including twisted wreckage of burning vehicles with officials seen piling up bloodied bodies in a police pickup truck.

A foreigner was among 12 people killed in the blast, with 66 others — including women and children — wounded, health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said on Twitter. He did not give the nationality of the foreigner.

Senior health official Sayed Kabir Amiri confirmed that toll from the attack, which comes as Taliban insurgents escalate their annual summer offensive against the US-backed Afghan government.

“One Resolute Support (Nato) contracted civilian was killed in the attack and two others died of wounds as a result of the attack,” Nato said in a statement.

A Nato spokeswoman said that the contractors were not Afghan nationals, but did not specify their nationalities.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2015

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