Afghan and Nato security personnel inspect the gate of a foreign logistics company in Kabul after the suicide attack yesterday.
KABUL: Taliban truck bomb and gun attacks killed nine people in the Afghan capital Kabul yesterday, destroying the entrance to a Nato supply company’s compound in the latest insurgent assault to shake peace efforts.
Four Nepalese, one Briton and one Romanian were among those killed in the bombing, which follows recent Taliban suicide attacks targeting the Supreme Court, the airport and the presidential palace.
The US has been pushing for peace talks as 100,000 Nato troops prepare to leave next year and Afghan security forces take on the fight against the Islamist extremists.
“Four Nepalese guards, one Afghan guard and two Afghan civilians have been killed,” Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said after the attack, which started at about 4.30am. The British embassy said one male British national had died, while the Romanian mission said a male civilian contractor was killed and another wounded.
The Dubai-based Supreme Group provides Nato bases with food, water, fuel and other supplies and maintains military storage buildings and accommodation. Its compound is close to UN offices and several Nato bases.
Salangi said the attack began with a suicide bomb in a large truck, and two or three insurgents opened fire on guards for about 30-40 minutes. All the attackers were killed.
The bomb left a large crater in the ground, and reduced walls and a guard post to a pile of rubble and twisted steel. Police said some suicide vests were later detonated by security forces.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, as pressure grows on Kabul to secure a peace deal with the rebels before international troops pull out by the end of 2014.
“An important foreign logistic and supply facility was attacked, first by an explosive-filled truck which removed all the barriers and followed by devoted mujahideen armed with small and heavy weapons entering the base,” the Taliban said in a statement.
A Taliban office that opened in Qatar on June 18 to start peace talks enraged President Hamid Karzai who broke off security talks with the Americans and threatened to boycott any peace process altogether.
The Taliban fighting a guerrilla war for 12 years have consistently refused to hold peace talks with Kabul and labelled Karzai as a US puppet.
Nato commanders, the Afghan government and the Taliban have vowed to fight on as international efforts are made to secure a ceasefire and start a peace process.
Hours after the Qatar office opened, a Taliban rocket attack killed four Americans on the largest military base in Afghanistan.
Days later, a suicide squad targeted the presidential palace and a CIA office in Kabul.
US President Barack Obama has said he anticipated “a lot of bumps in the road” but that a peace settlement with the Taliban was the only way to end violence.
More than 3,300 coalition personnel have been killed in the country since 2001, peaking at 711 deaths in 2010, according to the independent icasualties.org website. Half of the 68,000 US troops will exit by February, and the newly-trained Afghan army and police are taking the lead in the battle to suppress the Taliban.
The Taliban were deposed in a 2001 US-led invasion for sheltering Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. AFP
