First reported female suicide car bomber kills 12 in Afghanistan

Afghan security personnel investigate at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul September 18, 2012. A suicide bomber blew up a mini-bus carrying foreign and local contract workers near Kabul airport in Afghanistan on Tuesday, with at least nine bodies lying near the wreckage, a Reuters witness at the scene said.
REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

Twelve people were killed and 10 injured in an attack by a 22-year-old female suicide car bomber attack close to Kabul International Airport.
At least 12 people were killed in an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, after a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a mini-bus.

The mini-bus was carrying foreign aviation workers to the airport and the attack was said to be revenge by a militant group for an anti-Islam film said to ridicule the Prophet Muhammad.

The interior ministry said that nine foreigners and three Afghans lost their lives but details of the nationalities of the foreign victims were not disclosed.

Some 10 Afghan bystanders were also wounded in the attack, the responsibility of which was claimed by the Islamist militant group Hisb-i-Islami in an email sent to The Associated Press.

Spokesperson for the Hisb-i-Islami Harron Zarghoon said that the suicide bomber was a 22-year-old woman named Fatima making this the first reported attack ever to have been carried out by a woman in Afghanistan.

The explosion occurred near an avenue northwest of the city centre near Kabul International Airport and the blast hurled the mini-bus at least 50 yards from in front of a gas station.

from MaltaToday
Tuesday 18 September 2012 - 09:00---

from REUTERS:
By Hamid Shalizi and Mirwais Harooni
KABUL | Tue Sep 18, 2012 5:47am BST
(Writing by Rob Taylor; Editing by Robert Birsel)

An Afghan police officer keeps people away from the site of a suicide attack in Kabul September 18, 2012. A suicide bomber blew up a mini-bus carrying foreign and local contract workers near Kabul airport in Afghanistan on Tuesday, with at least nine bodies lying near the wreckage, a Reuters witness at the scene said.
REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

(Reuters) - A suicide attack on a minibus in the Afghan capital killed 12 people on Tuesday, including seven foreigners, and the Hezb-e-Islami insurgent group claimed responsibility, saying the blast was retaliation for a film mocking the Prophet Mohammad.
"A woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up in response to the anti-Islam video," said Zubair Sediqqi, a spokesman for the militant faction, which does not usually carry out such attacks.

The attack near Kabul airport underscored growing anger in Afghanistan over the film, which has enraged much of the Muslim world and led to the killing last week of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.

Thousands of protesters clashed with police in the Afghan capital on Monday, burning cars and hurling rocks at security forces in the worst outbreak of violence since February rioting over the inadvertent burning of Korans by U.S. soldiers.

The suicide attack was the first in Kabul involving a woman and the foreigners killed were mostly Russian and South African pilots working for an international courier company, senior police sources said.

The toll was the highest on foreigners in the city since last April when an Afghan air force pilot gunned down eight U.S. military flight instructors and an American civilian adviser after an argument at Kabul International Airport.

An Afghan security officer investigates at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul September 18, 2012. A suicide bomber blew up a mini-bus carrying foreign and local contract workers near Kabul airport in Afghanistan on Tuesday, with at least nine bodies lying near the wreckage, a Reuters witness at the scene said.
REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

Hezb-e-Islami, which means Islamic Party, is a radical militant group which shares some of the Taliban's anti-foreigner, anti-government aims.

But the political wing of the group, founded by warlord and anti-Soviet fighter Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has recently been in nascent talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on a peace deal to end the 11-year war.

The attack on the van took place as it stopped to refuel near the airport. Body parts were scattered over an area at the western end of the heavily fortified airport, outside a wedding hall.

Police said several civilians were caught up in the blast, which again underscored the ability of militants to bypass police checkpoints in the city, which had been manned by extra security forces after Monday's rioting.

"The target was a minivan carrying employees of a foreign company who had a contract with Americans. The seven foreigners killed were Russians and South Africans," said General Mohammmad Dawod Amin, a deputy for Kabul's police chief.

Posted in: Afghan National Police, Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Kabul, Kabul International Airport, NATO