Suicide car bomber hits Afghan capital, at least one dead

KABUL - 2 March 2018: A suicide car bomber struck on Friday in the Afghan capital of Kabul, killing one person and wounding 14 bystanders, officials said, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The attack came two days after President Ashraf Ghani offered to start peace talks with the Taliban and just over a month after an ambulance packed with explosives was detonated in the city centre, killing about 100 people.

Bismillah Tabaan, the police commander of the city's ninth district, where Friday's explosion took place, said a suicide bombing was the cause of blast, but the intended target was not clear.

Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the cause of the explosion was a car bomb in the city's Qabl Bai area. One person had been killed and 14 bystanders wounded, he added, with all the casualties civilians.

Much of the centre of Kabul is already a zone of concrete blast walls, razor wire and police checkpoints but security has been tightened even further in the wake of the Jan. 27 ambulance attack and another attack on the city's Intercontinental Hotel earlier in the month.