ASIA: Car bomb explodes near US Embassy
27 Nov 2008 4:55 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov 27 Agencies - A suicide car bomber targeting an American convoy exploded outside the US Embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least four people just as American civilians were entering the compound for a Thanksgiving Day event.
At least 18 more were wounded in the attack, which happened about 8.30am local time (1500 AEDT), the public health ministry said.
The target of the attack, about 60 metres from the heavily secured entrance to the embassy, appeared to have been a passing convoy of foreign troops, an Afghan interior ministry official said.
The blast badly damaged several cars and a bus with the area packed with morning rush-hour traffic.
Police officer Abdul Manan said the explosion was set off by a suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla.
The US Embassy was hosting a Thanksgiving Day fun run at 9am, so Americans and other Westerners were entering the embassy compound when the bomb went off, sending some participants sprinting for the embassy gates.
"I was about 30 or 40 yards inside the gate. There was a large explosion. I felt the shock wave, though it wasn't all that strong," said Danny Cutherell, a 26-year-old aid worker from Virginia.
"We were about 200 yards from the blast when it went off, but we were behind the embassy wall and that protected us."
Cutherell said about 20 participants in the run had been locked inside a room with double-locking doors at the embassy's security checkpoint and that guards would neither let them in or out.
"It was a bit shocking but it's also not that shocking because it is Thanksgiving and we had heard there was going to be tightened security today," Cutherell said.
"It's just scary to be that close to it."
