2 UN staff members killed in Kabul bomb attack

[August 18, 2009]  KABUL (AP) -- The U.N. says two of its Afghan staff members were killed in a bombing that targeted a foreign military convoy in Kabul.

Kai Eide, the U.N. chief in Afghanistan, says another staff member was wounded in the blast.

The Interior Ministry says a suicide car bomber attacked the convoy in Kabul's eastern outskirts Tuesday, killing at least seven people and wounding some 50 others. It was not clear whether the two dead U.N. workers were included in the ministry's toll.

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THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP's earlier story is below.

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KABUL (AP) -- A suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy Tuesday on the outskirts of Kabul, killing at least seven civilians and wounding 50 people, including several international troops, officials said. A U.N. spokesman said three U.N. staff were also wounded.

The attack occurred two days before national elections in which Afghans are to select a new president. The Taliban have denounced the election and warned people they would be at risk if they go to polling stations. Hours before the suicide blast, two mortar rounds struck near the presidential palace in Kabul, the U.S. military said.

NATO announced Tuesday that its forces would refrain from offensive military operations on election day and would undertake missions only if they were "deemed necessary to protect the population."

The suicide attack on a road close to a British military base killed seven civilians and wounded 50, a statement from the Ministry of Interior said.

Lt. Cmdr. Samantha Truelove, a spokeswoman for the NATO-led military force, said the attack involved the alliance's vehicles.

There were "some casualties" and several troops were wounded, she said. She could not clarify whether casualties meant dead troops.

Three Afghans working for the United Nations were among the wounded, but there was nothing to indicate that the U.N. vehicle was the target of the attack, said U.N. spokesman Aleem Siddique.

British troops were guarding the site of the explosion as rescuers rushed the wounded to hospitals. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw British soldiers collecting what appeared to be body parts from the roof of an Afghan home.

About a dozen private vehicles were destroyed near the road where the attack happened. People used their hands to dig through the rubble of damaged buildings.

U.S., NATO and Afghan security forces are on high alert this week because of the Thursday vote. President Hamid Karzai is favored to win but faces a stiff challenge from former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. About three dozen candidates are in the race.

U.S. military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias had no details of damage or casualties from the attack on the presidential compound.

Neither Karzai or anyone else was wounded in the attack, said deputy presidential spokesman Hamid Elmi. He said the rounds probably hit "somewhere around the compound," but he had no further details.

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber struck the gates of an Afghan army base in the southern province of Uruzgan, killing three Afghan soldiers and two civilians, provincial police chief Juma Gul Himat said.

Attacks in Afghanistan have risen steadily the last three years. In a speech Monday in Phoenix, President Barack Obama said U.S. troops would help secure polling places so that the elections can go forward and Afghans can choose their own future.

Obama said peace in Afghanistan "will not be quick" and "will not be easy." He added that the United States still has a deep interest in the long-term outcome.

"This is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people," Obama said.

[Associated Press]

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