14 dead after suicide bomber blows up bus

A TALIBAN suicide bomber has killed at least 14 people and wounded eight in an attack on a minibus in Kabul.

By David Trayner

BLOODY: A soldier looks at the wreckage of a bus after a suicide attack

The terrorist waited near a compound housing security contractors and struck as a vehicle carrying workers moved through early morning traffic.

As well as the bus passengers, several people in an adjacent market were also wounded in the attack – which occurred during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Several bodies and at least two wounded were seen being carried out of the yellow bus while police and emergency service vehicles surrounded the scene in the Banae district of the Afghan capital.

TARGET: The Taliban appears to have been targeting security personnel

GUARD: An Afghani policeman stands guard with a machine gun

The attack was the latest in a recent surge of violence in Kabul – just as the US tries to reduce the number of its troops in the country.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter that 14 people had been killed and eight wounded.

Police were working to identify the victims, he said.

The casualties appeared to include both Afghans and Nepalese security contractors, Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said.

WORRYING: Children watch the bus being taken away

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement from the Islamist group's main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, on Twitter.

The attack underlined how serious the security threat facing Afghanistan remains since former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike last month and was replaced by Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.

At least 64 people were killed in a co-ordinated suicide bomb and gun attack on the capital in April.