KABUL: Two civilian contractors working for the NATO force in Afghanistan were killed in a bomb attack in Kabul on Monday, a statement from the coalition said.
The car bomb in the east of the capital targeted a convoy of NATO troops, according to witnesses.
The two American contractors were in the war-ravaged nation for the international security force (ISAF), the NATO-led force and a US official said.
The explosion in eastern Kabul was the latest incident to rattle the city ahead of April’s presidential election due to choose the country’s first new leader since 2001.
“Two International Security Assistance Force contracted civilians died as the result of a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack in eastern Afghanistan today,” ISAF said in a statement.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the slain contractors were American.
Afghanistan’s future remains uncertain as the Taleban continue their insurgent campaign and Washington and President Hamid Karzai are deadlocked over a bilateral security deal to let some US forces stay beyond the end of 2014.
NATO forces have already begun to withdraw from Afghanistan, but the US and other nations have been seeking to keep some troops in Afghanistan after 2014 to help the country’s army fend off the Taleban.
On Saturday, the United Nations said that civilian deaths increased in 2013 as fighting intensified between government forces and insurgents.
Militants have stepped up attacks in the final year of the international coalition’s combat mission in Afghanistan, seeking to shake confidence in the Kabul government’s ability to keep order.
A witness said the blast was a suicide attack on a convoy of foreign military vehicles.
Police and ambulances rushed to the scene near the Pul-i-Charkhi prison. Two civilian vehicles lay overturned and nearby shop windows were shattered from the force of the explosion.
A local shopkeeper named Jameel, who uses only one name, said he saw two NATO vehicles leaving the prison and a car slamming into the second one. He said he saw at least two wounded foreigners but he could not tell the extent of their injuries before they were evacuated.
Several American military personnel arrived at the scene, but the NATO-led coalition gave few details of what happened. “We are aware of reports of an explosion in eastern Afghanistan,” the coalition said in a statement.
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