Suicide attack near Kabul hotel

Eight killed, 40 wounded :

AFGHANISTAN: A suicide bomber struck an upmarket district of Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday near a hotel and guest house frequented by foreigners, killing eight people and wounding another 40, officials said.

It was the latest in a string of attacks in Kabul blamed on the Taliban and came as President Hamid Karzai convened a flagship conference on corruption in another part of the city.

The attacker blew himself up outside the gate of the Heetal hotel in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, near a guest house and also the home of Afghanistan’s former first vice president, Ahmad Zia Massoud.

The attack turned the street into scenes of mayhem, where a woman staggered out with blood smeared across her face and a guard lay dead, his face burnt beyond recognition, AFP reporters said.

“Eight people have been killed. Four are women. Four others are male and 40 other people have been wounded. It was a suicide bombing,” interior ministry spokesman Zamarai Bashary told AFP.

Officials said the target of the attack was not immediately clear. On October 28, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a gun and suicide attack on another guest house in the same neighbourhood used by the United Nations, killing five UN staff.

Karzai told the anti-corruption conference, attended by lawmakers, government officials and ambassadors, that two bodygards of his former vice president were killed in the explosion.

The upmarket district of Wazir Akbar Khan is home to many foreign embassies and aid groups, as well as Afghan government officials.

“One of our guards was killed. The explosion happened down the road, close to our hotel. Not in our hotel,” Heetal finance manager Bejan Salehi,said.

Men, women and children were among the wounded, defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.

Siddiq Omar, 27, who works for an Internet company with a guest house in the street said five employees of the firm were wounded.

“I took the guard to hospital, he is very seriously hurt,” he told AFP.

Nanghirlay, 25, was travelling in a taxi more than two blocks away when the bomber struck.

“All the doors of the taxi were blown open by the force of the blast and the car turned full circle because the force of the blast was so big,” he said.

Kabul, AFP