Kabul suicide attack on UK diplomats leaves six dead - Guardian

At least six people including a British embassy guard were killed on Thursday when the Taliban launched a devastating suicide attack on a British diplomatic convoy near the Afghan capital Kabul, in a day of mayhem that also saw gunfire in the city.

The convoy was travelling on the road between Jalalabad and Kabul – about three miles east of the heavily fortified British embassy – when a suicide bomber struck. The bomber’s Toyota Corolla vehicle exploded – hurling the armoured British embassy SUV across the road and blowing off its roof completely. Smouldering debris was flung across a packed area including a mosque.

Later on Thursday there was a second explosion in Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan district, where the British embassy and other foreign missions are located. According to Afghan police, three Taliban fighters attacked a foreign guesthouse at 7.30pm. One fighter blew himself up while the other two staged a shoot-out with Nepalese security guards. Both attackers were eventually killed, police said. The compound belonged to International Relief and Development, a development agency.

The UK foreign secretary, Phillip Hammond, said that two British embassy workers died in the morning’s convoy attack. One was a British civilian security team member and the other an Afghan national working at the embassy. A second British member of the security team was injured, Hammond said. The private security firm G4S said both the dead security guard and his injured colleague were its employees.

Hammond described the bombing as an outrage and an “appalling attack on innocent civilians”.  Read More