British embassy says two workers, including an Afghan national, among the dead
A suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a British embassy vehicle in Kabul on Thursday, officials said, killing at least six people, including a British national and wounding 34 bystanders in the latest blast to hit the city.
British embassy staff were also injured in the attack. Among the bystanders injured were five children, officials said.
The huge explosion could be heard across Kabul and a plume of smoke rose high into the air above the attack site on the Jalalabad road, a main route that houses many foreign compounds and military facilities.
The attack, coming three days after two US soldiers were killed in another bomb blast in Kabul, highlights the fragile security situation in the Afghan capital as foreign forces end their combat mission against the Taliban.
The Taliban said they were behind Thursday’s attack in a message on a recognised Twitter account, claiming that many foreigners had been killed.
Later on Thursday evening, Britain said two people working for its embassy in Kabul, a Briton and an Afghan national, were killed in the bombing, and vowed to continue operating in Afghanistan despite the “outrage”.
“I am deeply saddened to confirm that a British national civilian security team member and an Afghan national working for the embassy were killed, “Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said.
Hammond said in a statement that a second British security guard was injured in the attack, which comes just days before a major conference on Afghanistan’s economy to be held in London.
“This outrage brings home to us once again the courage and perseverance of the people of Afghanistan and members of the international community who support them,” Hammond said.
“We will not allow such inhumanity to deter us from continuing our partnership with the government of Afghanistan,” he added.
Britain this week ended its 13-year military presence in southern Afghanistan when the last Royal Air Force personnel left Kandahar airfield.
The British military contribution next year will be the supervision of an officers’ training academy outside Kabul.
