Huge blast hits French restaurant in Kabul

Media reports said the 12-year-old boy had been dead on arrival. Police had detained one suspect and were preparing to conduct a sweep of the restaurant, Sediqqi said.

The Taliban claimed in a statement that “dozens of foreigners” had been killed or wounded, although the group often exaggerates casualty figures in attacks on foreign or government targets.

Security forces quickly made their way to the scene and police were investigating, Sediqqi said.

In what would be its first attack of the new year, a Taliban suicide vehicle bomber targeted a popular French restaurant Friday in Kabul, Afghanistan, the New York Times reported.

Desperate customers tried to hide under tables as one attacker detonated his suicide vest at the fortified entrance to the eatery and two other militants stormed inside and opened fire.

Le Jardin has tighter security than many other Kabul restaurants catering to expats, with multiple security doors and armed guards linked by handheld radio sets. He also said the bomber targeted a restaurant belonging to foreigners.

Officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States are scheduled to meet January 11 in Islamabad to begin discussing solutions to the conflict.

However the Taliban, which is struggling to contain bloody factional fighting over the leadership succession, has so far refused to take part while foreign forces remain in Afghanistan.

Pakistan earlier brokered the first ever face-to-face talks in early July and the second round was cancelled after the death of the Taliban leader Mullah Omar was revealed in late July.

The attack appeared to target Le Jardin, one of the few restaurants in Kabul still frequented by foreigners.

Afghan special forces have freed 59 prisoners from a Taliban jail in southern Helmand Province, officials said on January 2.