A large bomb exploded outside the Indian embassy in central Kabul today, killing 17 people and wounding 83, officials said, in the second big attack on the mission in 15 months.
The blast tore through a market building across the street from the heavily fortified embassy compound, leaving rubble and debris strewn across the road, where the Afghan Interior Ministry is also located.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Violence has reached its worst levels of the eight-year war with Taliban insurgents spreading their attacks to previously secure areas.
Since the start of last year, militants in the capital have targeted the German embassy, the headquarters for the NATO-led force, the Information Ministry and the Justice Ministry buildings, the airport and a luxury hotel near the presidential palace.
India said its embassy had been the target of today's attack but that all its staff were safe.
In July last year, the embassy was the scene of the war's deadliest attack on the capital. Then a Taliban suicide car bomber killed 58 people, including two senior Indian diplomats, and wounded a further 141.
"I believe the suicide bomb was directed against the embassy because the suicide bomber came up to the outside perimeter wall of the embassy with a car loaded with explosives obviously with the aim of targeting the embassy," Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters in India.
Mr Rao said the blast was similar in size to the 2008 attack but that measures taken since then to secure the embassy had worked effectively in protecting its embassy staff.
The road, which is also home to the Interior Ministry and the Indonesian embassy, had been closed to traffic since the 2008 attack and was only reopened in the last few weeks. A large concrete blast barrier was erected down the centre of the road.
Indian authorities blamed the Pakistani intelligence service for last year's blast.
Eleven civilians and one policeman were killed in today's blast.
As mounting violence grips the country, US President Barack Obama is considering whether to send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan as requested by his top commander there, General Stanley McChrystal.
Yesterday, the Pentagon confirmed Obama had received McChrystal's request for more troops, moving him a step closer to a long-awaited decision on a new military build-up.
Reuters