Taliban claims responsibility for Kabul suicide bombing

WATCH ABOVE: A suicide car bomber struck near the headquarters of the European police training mission in Kabul on Monday, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding five others nearby.

KABUL – A suicide car bomber struck near the headquarters of the European police training mission in Kabul on Monday, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding 16 people, police and EUPOL said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the first against a foreign target in the Afghan capital in 2015.

According to EUPOL, the driver of the explosives-laden car apparently targeted a mission convoy of vehicles near its headquarters on the eastern outskirts of Kabul.

“The vehicle’s occupants were uninjured,” said EUPOL, which funds and trains Afghanistan’s 157,000-strong police force.

The spokesman for the Afghan public health ministry, Kaneshka Baktarsh Turkistany, said three Afghan troops were also wounded.

Earlier Monday, an explosion near Kabul’s international airport caused no casualties. Kabul was hit by several attacks in the last weeks of 2014 as the Taliban targeted government, military and foreign installations. The flurry of attacks killed six foreigners.

In southern Helmand province, an Afghan investigator said Monday that two soldiers were arrested over the deaths of at least 28 people during New Year’s Eve, when artillery shells hit the house where a wedding party was underway. The explosion also wounded more than 50 people.

Din Mohammad, part of a presidential delegation sent to Sangin district to investigate the incident, said the probe had determined there was a heavy firefight with insurgents nearby at the time.

The two soldiers will face unspecified charges, Mohammad said, adding that further investigation would determine whether they deliberately targeted the house.

Afghan forces have taken over responsibility for nationwide security as of Jan. 1, following the drawdown of NATO and U.S. troops.

U.S. soldiers left Sangin, a major poppy-producing area along the Helmand River six months ago. Since then, Taliban attacks have increasingly been testing the ability of the Afghan army.

Also Monday, a roadside bomb hit a NATO convoy in eastern Nangahar province, damaging one vehicle but inflicting no casualties, spokesman Capt. Frank Hartnett said.

In southeastern Zabul province bordering Pakistan, deputy police chief Ghulam Jilani Farahi said he was the target of a Monday morning suicide blast that killed two civilians and wounded four.