TIMES ONLINE: A massive suicide car bomb ripped through the Afghan capital this morning – at the gates of an upmarket hotel – killing at least eight people and wounding dozens more.
The explosion sent a thick plume of black smoke billowing into the sky above Kabul’s diplomatic district, close to the British and Danish embassies.
Eyewitness Ahmad Jawad said that he saw six bodies on the unmade road, in the immediate aftermath of the blast. Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior said later that eight people were killed; four men and four women. Another 40 people were wounded.
“I was in my car when the bomb exploded in front of me,” said Mr Jawad, 21. “The force of the blast turned my car around. When I got out I saw six bodies in front of the hotel.”
The blast came as President Hamid Karzai was due to attend a conference on how to tackle government corruption at the Foreign Ministry, in a separate part of the city. >>> Jerome Starkey in Kabul | Tuesday, December 15, 2009
