By Kirk Semple for the New York Times:
KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 6 “” A suicide car bomber detonated his device next to an American military convoy on the main road leading to the Kabul airport early Saturday, killing one American serviceman and at least four civilians, American and Afghan officials said.
The attack, which came on the sixth anniversary of the American-led invasion in 2001, destroyed the soldier’s vehicle and wounded many people, officials and witnesses said.
“I heard a very big blast and I threw myself to the ground,” said Jamal, 22, who, like many Afghans, goes by only one name. “I then saw the vehicle in the air and it came down and hit another car.” One of the victims was a civilian riding a bike, he said.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a telephone interview that the insurgency was responsible for the bombing.
It was the third suicide attack in Kabul in eight days. The Taliban also claimed responsibility for those earlier attacks, which struck Afghan security forces and killed at least 42.