Bomb kills 18, including five U.S., 1 Canada servicemen

KABUL, Afghanistan | A suicide bomber detonated his vehicle near a U.S. convoy Tuesday, killing 18 people, including six soldiers — five Americans and a Canadian one — in the deadliest attack on NATO in the Afghan capital in eight months.

The Canadian, Col. Geoff Parker, 42, is the highest-ranking member of the Canadian Forces to die in Afghanistan since the Canadian mission began in 2002, the country’s military said.

Twelve Afghan civilians also died — many of them on a public bus in rush-hour traffic along a major thoroughfare that runs by the ruins of a one-time royal palace and government ministries. At least 47 people were wounded, the Interior Ministry said.

The blast was the first major attack in the Afghan capital since February and followed a Taliban announcement of a spring offensive even as the U.S. gears up for a major push to restore order in the turbulent south.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid took responsibility for the blast, telling the Associated Press in a telephone call that the bomber was a man from Kabul and that the vehicle was packed with 1,650 pounds of explosives.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai joined the U.S. and NATO in condemning the attack, which he said killed women and children.

The explosion, which thundered across the capital, happened about 8 a.m. when streets were packed with cars, buses and trucks. The bomb ripped apart vehicles and hurled body parts along the street. U.S. and Afghan forces blocked off the area as emergency workers put the wounded in ambulances.

U.S. forces spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said five American service members were killed in the Kabul blast.

NATO said two other international service members were killed Tuesday in separate attacks in the south, one of whom the U.S. command said was an American. That brought the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan since the war began in 2001 to at least 993, according to an Associated Press count.

The Kabul attack was the heaviest loss of life for NATO in a single attack in the capital since Sept. 17, when a suicide car bomber killed six Italian soldiers.

Earlier this month, the Taliban announced a new offensive — “Operation Al-Fatah” or “Victory” — which would target NATO forces, foreign diplomats, contractors and Afghan government officials.

The announcement was made on the eve of Mr. Karzai’s visit to Washington and comes as U.S., NATO and Afghan forces are gearing up for a major operation to secure Kandahar, the biggest city in the south and the former Taliban headquarters before they were ousted from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

U.S. officials say that control of Kandahar is the key to stabilizing the Taliban’s southern heartland.