Suicide bomb rocks Afghan capital

KABUL, (AFP)

A suicide bomb exploded near the German embassy in the Afghan capital Saturday, leaving people dead and wounded, the defence ministry said.

The explosion - in an area near UN offices and a US military base - set alight a tanker and two vehicles, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

"It was a suicide bombing," defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters at the scene.

"There are casualties, dead and wounded. Ambulances are working to evacuate the victims," he said. "Its target could be both Afghan and foreigners because it is an important area."An AFP reporter saw one body being carried off on a stretcher. Television images showed another person being taken away in the back of a pick-up truck.

The Afghan capital suffered a rash of attacks last year, fuelling fears that a Taliban-led insurgency which mostly targets the south and east of the country was encroaching on the capital.

In one, a suicide car bomb claimed by Taliban insurgents blew up near the US embassy on November 27 and killed four Afghan civilians.

The Taliban, an extremist Islamic group, ran the government in Kabul from 1996 to 2001 and are now waging a deadly insurgency to take back power.Last year was the worst of the insurgency and military commanders have called for more troops and equipment as they try to battle the militants while building up the Afghan forces.

The new administration of US president-elect Barack Obama is expected to send in up to 30,000 more troops in the next few months, almost doubling the number of US soldiers in the country.