Suicide bomber hits foreign forces in Kabul

KABUL (Reuters) – A Taliban suicide car bomber hit a convoy of foreign troops on the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Sunday, wounding two Afghan civilians and slightly injuring a French soldier, officials said.

The attack took place on Kabul’s western edge near a bridge where Italian troops and a Turkish diplomatic convoy have been attacked by Taliban insurgents in the past 18 months.

Two Afghan civilians were wounded, the Interior Ministry said, while a spokesman for NATO-led forces said a French soldier received minor injuries in the blast.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The austere Islamist movement, toppled from power by U.S.-led and Afghan forces after the September 11, 2001 attacks, launched more than 100 suicide bombings last year.

The attack occurred on the main road to the south of the country from Kabul which runs through Maidan Wardak, a province that has seen a sharp increase in violence in the past year as Taliban militants have moved into the area.

Some 3,000 U.S. troops, the first of up to 30,000 extra American soldiers expected to be sent in Afghanistan this year, were deployed in Maidan Wardak and neighboring Logar province last month.