Kabul Blast Shatters the Calm in an Afghanistan Oasis - Time

Around 8 a.m. on Tuesday, a suicide bomber struck a NATO convoy in southwest Kabul, about three miles from the guesthouse, killing at least 12 civilians and six foreign soldiers, five of whom were American; 47 others were reported wounded, many of whom were the civilian passengers of a bus, according to the Interior Ministry.

The Taliban took responsibility for the bombing, and several analysts said the attack likely reflected Taliban opposition to President Hamid Karzai's upcoming peace jirga — a national meeting aimed at charting a path for reconciliation with the Taliban and other insurgents. "It shows how opposed the Taliban are to the peace jirga and Karzai's [recent] trip to the United States," Ahmad Saeedy, a political analyst and former Afghan diplomat, told me. "The Taliban are trying to show the world that Afghanistan is not secure. - Kabul Blast Shatters the Calm in an Afghanistan Oasis