Suicide Bomber Targets Foreigners In Kabul As NATO Suspends Joint Operations In Afghanistan
CNN (USA), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), BBC NEWS (UK)
KABUL - Up to 12 people are reported to have been killed in a suicide bomb attack, which struck a bus near the Afghan capital, report BBC News.
A 22-year-woman is believed to have driven a car filled with 300 kg of explosives into a mini bus on a road leading to the Kabul International Airport.
According to Al Jazeera, nine of them were foreign workers for an international courier company, and one was an Afghan translator. Eleven people were wounded in the attack, the interior ministry said.
Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, a group allied with the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the blast meant to avenge the controversial anti-Islam film, which has sparked furor in the Muslim world.
Meanwhile, NATO troops in Afghanistan have been ordered to halt some joint operations with Afghan security forces following a string of so called “green-on-blue” deadly attacks, reports CNN.
Joint operations will now only be conducted routinely at battalion level - large operations involving several hundred troops.
More than 50 coalition troops have been killed since January in 36 attacks where Afghan security troops have turned their guns on allied soldiers.
According to BBC News, a fifth of UK soldiers killed this year in Afghanistan were killed not by insurgents, but by Afghan soldiers or police.
Over the weekend, four Americans and two British troops were shot dead by suspected Afghan police.
