KABUL: A suicide bomber targeting a NATO convoy wounded three Afghan civilians in Kabul on Sunday morning without causing casualties among Danish troops on board, officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing in the west of the Afghan capital.
“Around 11:02 a.m., a suicide car bomber detonated himself, targeted a convoy of foreign forces near Afshar neighborhood of Kabul city,” Najib Danish, Interior Ministry spokesman, told AFP.
“Unfortunately as a result of the attack, three Afghan civilians were wounded.”
Bill Salvin, a spokesman for NATO’s Resolute Support train and assist mission, confirmed the attack had targeted a military convoy.
“There are no Resolute Support casualties as a result of the explosion, and a team from Resolute Support is on the scene to recover the vehicle,” Salvin said, adding that “there is no impact to Resolute Support operations.”
In a statement on Twitter Sunday, Taliban insurgents claimed to have killed and injured up to 16 American soldiers in the attack. The militants routinely exaggerate claims.
NATO has nearly 13,000 troops in Afghanistan including 8,400 Americans, with an additional 3,000 troops expected to be deployed in support.
The alliance’s mission in Afghanistan is focused on training, advising and supervision of domestic security forces to counter the Taliban insurgents — who oppose the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani — and Daesh.
On Sept. 13, a suicide bomber killed three people including a policeman and wounded five others after blowing himself up near a cricket stadium in Kabul.
Past suicide attacks on such convoys have usually caused casualties among nearby civilians while leaving their targets relatively unharmed. NATO personnel now often travel even short distances in Kabul by helicopter.
The Taliban, which often exaggerates casualty estimates from its attacks, said 16 Americans had been killed and three armoured vehicles destroyed. It said it was preparing to step up the pace of attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan.
NATO personnel travelling by road normally travel in convoys of three heavily armoured personnel carriers which can resist all but the heaviest explosions.
NATO convoy attacked in Kabul, civilians wounded
NATO convoy attacked in Kabul, civilians wounded
British serial killer ‘Suffolk Strangler’ pleads guilty to 1999 murder
- Steve Wright, who is already serving a life sentence with no prospect of parole for killing the women in 2006, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court
LONDON: A British serial killer dubbed the “Suffolk Strangler” by the media after he killed five young women two decades ago pleaded guilty on Monday to another murder from 27 years ago.
Steve Wright, who is already serving a life sentence with no prospect of parole for killing the women in 2006, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court and admitted kidnapping and murdering 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999.
Wright, 67, also pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnap of a 22-year-old woman the day before Hall’s murder. He will be sentenced on Friday.
“Justice has finally been achieved for Victoria Hall after 26 years,” Samantha Woolley from the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.
Wright was convicted in 2008 of the murder of five women who worked as prostitutes in the town of Ipswich, northeast of London in Suffolk. Wright left two of the bodies in a crucifix position with arms outstretched.
He was give a whole-life order, meaning he could never be released from prison, for what the sentencing judge described as “a targeted campaign of murder.”
Wright had consistently denied the allegations even though his DNA was found on three of the victims and bloodstains from two of them were found on his jacket at his home. His victims’ bodies were found in the space of just 10 days around Ipswich.
