Americans among 12 killed in Kabul

3 were working for military contractor in Afghanistan.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Three Americans working for the U.S.-led military coalition were among 12 people killed Saturday when their vehicle was targeted by a suicide car bomber, according to Afghan and U.S. military accounts.

The three Americans were working for DynCorp International, a military contractor, according to a company official in Kabul, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. They were not identified.

It was believed to be the worst loss of American life in a single episode this year in Afghanistan, since U.S. forces have mostly withdrawn, leaving less than 10,000 soldiers.

The blast took place in the center of Kabul, the latest in a series of major bombings in recent weeks, but there was no immediate word on who was responsible.

The attack came late in the afternoon when convoys often go through downtown Kabul taking foreign and Afghan workers, as well as international military personnel, to their homes or barracks.

A witness at the scene, Abdul Rahman Arif, 38, his hands and clothing covered in blood from carrying victims to ambulances, said he saw at least three bodies after the blast, and four severely wounded occupants of the coalition vehicle, as well as many children wounded in a nearby playground.

A six-story office building across the street from the blast had all of its windows broken, with many inside injured from broken glass. Personnel at the nearby Shinozada Hospital were among those hurt by glass.

Witnesses said the bomber had been in a Toyota Corolla and appeared to have targeted a sport utility vehicle full of foreigners wearing civilian clothes but heavily armed.

Col. Brian Tribus, a spokesman for the U.S.led military coalition here, said three civilian contractors working for the coalition were killed; one died immediately and two died later from their wounds.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, Mohammad Ismail Kawosi, said the death toll was 12 with 67 wounded. But the Kabul police chief, Abdul Rahman Rahmani, said in an interview at the scene that the casualty toll, which included women and children, was likely to rise because of all the injuries.

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS / ASSOCIATED PRESS Emergency services attend the scene on the A27 after a plane crashed into cars on the major road during an aerial display Saturday at the Shoreham Airshow in West Sussex, England.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI / AP Afghan security forces and British soldiers inspect the site of a suicide attack in the heart of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday. The suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy traveling through a crowded neighborhood in Afghanistan’s capital.