Officers allege suicide automotive bomb concentrating on foreigners’ convoy

A vehicle bomb that exploded outside a private hospital in Kabul on Saturday killed one person and injured 18 more, a senior health official said, part of a wave of attacks to hit the Afghan capital in recent weeks.

“Police [and] witnesses say it targeted foreign convoy”, Smith tweeted.

The loud explosion reverberated around Kabul and left a trail of devastation, with an AFP photographer seeing the mangled wreckage of a burning vehicle at the scene of the blast. Paramedics carried away casualties on stretchers. “Some were in a bad condition.”

An Afghan police official told Anadolu Agency that at least three foreigners were feared dead in the incident; however, the claim was yet to be officially confirmed.

The Taliban denied carrying out the attack.

DynCorp global did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The American civilians worked for the global military force in Afghanistan.

The violence has strained ties with neighbor Pakistan, with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani accusing the government there of not doing enough to stop militants planning attacks from training camps he says lie across the border.

Eyewitnesses in the area had earlier said the suicide bomber detonated his explosives close to the Sheenozada clinic in Macroryan area.

The attack struck near the private Shinozada hospital in the capital’s Macrorayan neighborhood just as schools were letting out.

Glass was blown out of the windows of the Shinozada hospital and a six-story building opposite.