US Military confirms NATO soldiers causalities in deadly Kabul blast
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*KABUL - An American service member was among the dead in Thursday’s car bombing in central Kabul, NATO said, the second confirmed foreign soldier to die in the Taliban attack.*
Two foreign “service members were killed in action today in Kabul,” Resolute Support, the US-led NATO mission in Kabul, said in a statement.
“One service member was from Romania. … The second service member was from the United States.”
The car bomb blast shook Shash Darak, a heavily fortified area adjacent to the Green Zone and home to several important complexes including the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence service.
Apparent surveillance footage of the attack, which occurred at about 10:10 am (0540 GMT), showed a grey minivan explode just after it had cut in front of a line of white SUVs waiting to make a right turn right onto a street.
One nearby pedestrian can be seen turning and trying to run away as the minivan crashed through a barrier just before the blast.
According to interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi, at least 10 civilians were killed and 42 more wounded.
But Farid Ahmad Karimi, general manager at the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital close to the bomb site, told AFP that both civilians and security personnel were among the dead and wounded.
On Twitter, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying a “martyrdom seeker” — suicide bomber — had triggered the car bomb and that 12 “foreign invaders” were killed. -APP/AFP
