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Car bomb kills eight people near US Embassy in Kabul

Posted at 8:23 AM, May 03, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-03 08:23:39-04

A car bomb targeting a convoy of foreign troops exploded near the US Embassy in Kabul on Wednesday, killing eight people and wounding 25 others, an Afghan official said.

The blast hit at 7:55 a.m. (local time) in Kabul police district 9, near the embassy and Supreme Court, according to interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish.

Afghan security personnel investigate the site of a suicide attack that targeted a foreign forces convoy near the US embassy in Kabul on May 3, 2017.
A powerful blast targeting a foreign forces convoy near the US embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul killed at least eight people and wounded 25 May 3, officials said, the latest attack in the Afghan capital. / AFP PHOTO / WAKIL KOHSAR (Photo credit should read WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP/Getty Images)

No information was immediately available on the nationality of the troops, but Danish earlier said all the victims were Afghan civilians.

US Forces Afghanistan later said three members of the international coalition suffered nonlife-threatening injuries.

The convoy targeted was mine-resistant and can withstand ambushes, coalition officials tweeted.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement posted by its media arm Amaq, the terror group said one of its members targeted “a column of American forces.”

The statement included a photo of the man it said was the suicide bomber.

Afghan municipality workers clear the site of a suicide attack that targeted a foreign forces convoy near the US embassy in Kabul on May 3, 2017.
A powerful blast targeting a foreign forces convoy near the US embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul killed at least eight people and wounded 25 May 3, officials said, the latest attack in the Afghan capital. / AFP PHOTO / WAKIL KOHSAR (Photo credit should read WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP/Getty Images)