..2 us military contractors were killed in the attack by shahid hakimullah.. KABUL, Afghanistan — As a convoy of sport utility vehicles ...
..2 us military contractors were killed in the attack by shahid hakimullah.. KABUL, Afghanistan — As a convoy of sport utility vehicles left the main prison here on Monday afternoon, a suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla crashed head-on into the lead vehicle, exploding in a fireball that sent the Toyota’s engine flying more than 100 yards.Two NATO contractors riding in the first S.U.V. were killed, and an unknown number wounded, according to Afghan and American officials. “I pulled out two dead bodies of the foreign soldiers after the car bomber hit their cars,” a policeman at the scene said.Jamil, a worker at a restaurant on the road where the attack happened, was grilling kebabs outside at the time, and immediately ran. “I saw pieces of cars flying into the air,” he said.The American-led International Security Assistance Force issued a statement saying only that two civilian contractors were killed by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device in eastern Afghanistan. In keeping with military policy, it did not specify nationalities or exact locations pending notification of next of kin.Afghan officials, however, made it clear the attack happened in Kabul near the Pul-i-Charkhi prison, and involved contractors working on prison affairs.American troops arrived shortly after the explosion and appeared to have taken control of the area, although the Afghan police and Afghan soldiers were present as well.Although Afghan authorities described the victims as foreign soldiers, the American military said none of its soldiers were killed. Many contractors working for the military wear what appear to be military uniforms.A spokesman for the militant group Hizb-i-Islami, Haroon Zarghoon, reached by telephone in Peshawar, Pakistan, said his group had carried out the attack, which he asserted had killed 13 Americans and destroyed three vehicles. He said the attack involved a week of planning in an effort to avoid civilian casualties.Sayed Gul Agha Hashimi, head of the Kabul Police’s Criminal Investigation Division, said that seven Afghan civilians, one of them a child, were also injured in the blast. He said he could not comment on foreigners wounded or killed because American soldiers were in charge at the scene and handling foreign casualties.It was the first attack on a NATO convoy in the capital since December and the first major attack of any sort since a team of suicide attackers hit a popular restaurant three weeks ago and 21 killed people, mostly foreigners. Less
