Blast strikes near U.S. military base in Kabul

Suicide car bomb explodes 100 yards from Camp Phoenix

Image: NATO-led troops are seen at the site of a blast in Kabul

Omar Sobhani / Reuters

NATO-led troops are seen at the site where a suicide car bomber struck a convoy of civilian vehicles outside a U.S. military base in Kabul early on Friday.

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msnbc.com news services

updated 1:14 a.m. ET Nov. 13, 2009

KABUL - A suicide car bomber struck a convoy of civilian vehicles outside a U.S. military base in Kabul early on Friday, wounding three Afghans and causing several casualties among foreigners, police said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, The Associated Press reported.

The head of criminal investigations for Kabul police, Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, said 3-4 foreign casualties had been taken from the scene by Western troops, but he could give no details of the extent of their wounds.

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A damaged white civilian vehicle could be seen at the debris-strewn blast site on a main road about 100 yards from Camp Phoenix, a large U.S. military base also used by troops from other NATO countries near the airport.

Witnesses said a second civilian vehicle that was destroyed in the blast had been removed, while U.S. troops in armored 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.

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He said he believed several foreigners had been killed inside the vehicle that had been destroyed.

Sgt. Kevin Bell, a spokesman for the U.S. and NATO-led forces, confirmed a blast but gave no further details.

Violence in Afghanistan this year has reached the worst levels of the eight-year-old war, and militants have staged a number of attacks in the capital in recent months.