Suicide blast kills two outside foreign camp in Kabul

Kabul: A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed vehicle at the entrance of a foreign-run compound in Kabul today, killing at least two Afghan guards, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the early-morning blast, which shook windows across the Afghan capital and sent a plume of smoke into the sky over the east of the city. The exact target of the attack was unclear, but the area houses many facilities for foreign contract companies.

"It was a bomb in a small truck at the gate of a foreign base. Initial reports show two guards killed, several wounded," Najib Danish, deputy spokesman for the ministry of interior, told AFP.

"The guards were Afghan. After the blast, two other attackers tried to enter the base and were killed by guards." Danish said the camp was run by an international company. On Sunday Afghan lawmaker Shukria Barakzai escaped a suicide blast in Kabul as she drove in a convoy near parliament.

Three civilians died in that attack. Kabul has been hit by regular suicide attacks over recent years, often against the US-led military force fighting Taliban insurgents since 2001. The NATO force is ending its war next month and pulling out, though about 12,500 troops will remain to support the Afghan army and police now responsible for imposing security nationwide.