Man shot dead at checkpoint in heavily guarded diplomatic quarter after partial detonation of explosive vest
A suicide bomber has killed two security guards in the heart of Kabul's heavily fortified military and diplomatic enclave, but it is suspected he was stopped short of his real target, Afghan police said.
A senior police intelligence source said the attacker was aiming for a base "with foreign and Afghan forces". The blast happened at about 8.20am local time near Camp Eggers, a key US military base, and a couple of streets away from Nato headquarters.
Shortly before the explosion a man in civilian clothes was seen arguing with Afghan security guards at a checkpoint. When the argument escalated, the bomber tried to detonate his vest, but was shot before all the explosives he was carrying went off, police said.
Bomb disposal teams sealed the area, where glass from shattered car windows was strewn across the ground, to defuse the remaining explosives.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which they said targeted a nearby CIA office. The group often exaggerates in its public statements.
Embassy alarms and ambulance sirens wailed after the explosion. The US, UK, Canadian, Japanese and German embassies are among those clustered in the area, but none suffered any damage.
An armoured SUV belonging to foreign forces was damaged in the blast, but no one inside was hurt, a spokesman for the Nato-led coalition said.
Mokhtar Amiri contributed reporting