KABUL - A car bomb exploded near a Nato convoy outside a US military base in Kabul yesterday, injuring nine foreign soldiers as well as several civilian contractors and Afghan bystanders, the Nato-led force said.
In a statement, the Nato-led force said 10 civilian contractors were wounded in the attack but did not identify their nationalities.
The head of criminal investigations for Kabul police, Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, said a suicide bomber drove his car into a convoy of civilian vehicles just outside Camp Phoenix, a large US military base near the Afghan capital's airport.
He said three to four foreign casualties had been taken from the scene by western troops, but gave no details of the extent of their injuries.
In a text message, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Islamist militant group was responsible for the attack.
The Nato-led force said none of its soldiers was killed.
A damaged white civilian vehicle could be seen at the debris-strewn blast site on a main road about 100m from Camp Phoenix on Jalalabad road.
Witnesses said a second civilian vehicle destroyed in the blast had been removed, while US troops in armoured vehicles blocked off the site.
"We were having breakfast when we heard a huge bang. All the glass was shattered," said Abdul Jamil, a worker at a petrol station across the street from the site.
Violence in Afghanistan this year has reached the worst levels of the eight-year war, and militants have staged several attacks in the capital in recent months.
Meanwhile, German defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has announced that Germany will send 120 more soldiers to northern Afghanistan to reinforce its base in the Kundus province.
Mr Guttenberg announced the modest increase during a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where Germany has the third-largest contingent in the Nato-led mission with 4,200 troops.
"I've made the decision to reinforce Kundus with an additional infantry company from mid-January," the new defence minister said at the dust-covered field post in Kundus, where he visited a wounded soldier and ate at the mess hall.
The US, with 67,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, has long urged Germany and other countries to send more troops.
There are about 42,000 from other allied nations.
German defence ministry spokesman Steffen Moritz told reporters in Berlin the extra infantry company would contain 120 soldiers.
The German parliament has limited participation in the Nato mission to a maximum of 4,500 soldiers.
Opinion polls show most Germans oppose military involvement, which has cost the lives of 36 of their countrymen.
The government has resisted pressure from the US in previous years to divert its troops to more violent areas.
Mr Guttenberg, popular because he is the first German defence minister to acknowledge the troops are in a war, is also a rarity in that he is himself a reserve officer.
He received a warm welcome from the troops, possibly due to his support for the military.
Last week he defended a German-ordered air strike that killed dozens of Taliban but also civilians, calling it necessary given the situation.
British prime minister Gordon Brown said yesterday Britain was trying to persuade its military allies fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan to send 5,000 more troops. - (Reuters)