Taliban launches suicide attack on Euro police training mission

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the first against a foreign target in the Afghan capital in 2015.

The driver of the car packed with explosives apparently targeted a convoy of mission vehicles near its headquarters on the eastern outskirts of Kabul in the early afternoon, according to a statement from the Eupol mission.

“The vehicle’s occupants were uninjured,” Eupol said on its Facebook page. The mission funds and trains Afghanistan’s 157,000-strong police force.

The spokesman for the Kabul police chief, Hashmat Stanekzai, confirmed the casualties.

A separate explosion struck near Kabul’s international airport earlier, leaving no casualties.

Kabul was hit by a high number of attacks in the last weeks of 2014 as the Taliban targeted government, military and foreign installations. A total of six foreigners were killed in a flurry of attacks in the capital in late 2014.

Meanwhile, in southern Helmand province, an Afghan investigator said that two soldiers had been arrested in connection with the deaths of at least 28 people at a wedding party on New Year’s Eve when artillery shells hit the house where they were celebrating.

Din Mohammad, part of a presidential delegation sent to Sangin district to investigate the incident, said that their probe had determined there was a heavy firefight with insurgents at the time.

The two soldiers will face unspecified charges, he said, adding that further investigations would determine whether they deliberately targeted the house.

The shells hit the house where a wedding party had gathered to welcome the bride. Along with the 28 killed, more than 50 people were wounded.

Afghan forces have taken over responsibility for nationwide security as of January 1, following the drawdown of Nato and US troops.

US soldiers left Sangin, a major poppy-producing area along the Helmand River, six months ago. Since then, Taliban attacks have increasingly been testing the ability of the Afghan army.

Fighter jets dispatched by Libya’s internationally recognised government bombed a Greek-owned tanker ship at an eastern city controlled by Islamist extremists, killing two crew members and wounding two, Libyan and Greek officials said.

The bombing highlights the chaos that has gripped Libya since its 2011 civil war that deposed and killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Libyan officials apologised for the bombing as the Greek foreign ministry demanded compensation for the victims’ families and punishment for those behind the attack.

Libyan military spokesman Ahmed Mesmari said jets struck the Liberian-flagged Araevo twice in Darna before his government learned the vessel was commissioned by the local power station. Darna is a base for Islamist extremists who have pledged allegiance to the “Islamic State” group.

“We had no information (about the tanker). We treated it as a dangerous and suspicious target that threatens national security,” Mr Mesmari told the Associated Press. “We regret the loss of lives.”