A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the Indian Embassy in the busy center of Afghanistan's capital Thursday, killing 17 people and wounding nearly 80 in the second major attack in the city in less than a month. Claiming the responsibility for the attack, the Taleban said that the embassy was the target. The blast occurred a day after the Afghanistan war reached its eighth anniversary and as US President Barack Obama considered a request for between 10,000 and 40,000 additional troops prepared by the top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal. In New Delhi, India's Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said that driver of the sport utility vehicle “came up to the outer perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives.” Three Indian paramilitary soldiers on guard at the embassy's watchtower were wounded by shrapnel, Rao said. The Interior Ministry said 15 civilians and two Afghan police officers were killed. At least 76 people were wounded, the ministry said. It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since Sept. 17, when a suicide bomber killed 16 people, including six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians, on a road in the center of the capital. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the US Embassy and the United Nations mission all condemned the attack. The Taleban did not say why it targeted the Indian Embassy. A similar suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008 killed 60 people and was blamed on Taleban militants linked to Pakistan's intelligence agencies. The Indian news channel CNN-IBN cited Jayant Prasad, India's Ambassador in Kabul, as saying Thursday's blast caused “extensive damage to the chancery.” He said the bomb was so powerful that it blew off some of the embassy's doors and windows. In Islamabad, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abdul Basit, condemned the bombing. “Whenever terrorist activity occurs it should strengthen our resolve to eradicate and eliminate this menace,” he said. The blast also damaged a line of shops between the embassy and the Interior Ministry, shattering glass and rattling buildings more than a mile (kilometer) away. A huge brown plume of smoke was visible in the air as ambulances raced to the scene and carried away the wounded. A European police officer assigned as an adviser to the Interior Ministry and an Afghan interpreter were slightly wounded by flying glass, training spokesman Andrea Angeli said. One 21-year-old Afghan man, who gave his name only as Najibullah, said he had just opened his shop when the explosion went off, knocking him unconscious. When he awoke, he said, he couldn't see anything because of dust and debris. “Dust was everywhere. People were shouting,” Najibullah said. “You couldn't see their faces because there was so much dust.” His white clothes were covered in blood after helping load four injured onto ambulances. AP Television News footage showed local residents and soldiers pulling a charred, severed leg out of a destroyed vehicle. Others carried an apparently lifeless body on a stretcher to an ambulance. On another stretcher, a man lay face down, one arm hanging downward, his left leg covered in blood. Two United Nations vehicles were near the blast and one was badly damaged, spokesman Dan McNorton confirmed. Both vehicles had only a driver inside, and neither was wounded.
