A suicide bomber blew up a police bus in the Afghan capital Kabul today, killing around 35 people in one of Kabul's deadliest explosions in recent months amid rising nationwide violence.
The blast tore apart the bus, wrecked several other vehicles and scattered body parts.
Four of the dead were foreigners, the Interior Ministry said, but gave no details. Foreigners are involved in training Afghan police, with Germany leading the way.
The bomb exploded during the morning rush hour, near the headquarters of Kabul's police chief, at a time when buses normally ferry police officers to their beats.
It was the fifth suicide bombing in Afghanistan in three days, all claimed by Taliban insurgents who want to overturn its Western-backed government and drive out foreign troops.
A police eyewitness at the scene, outside the Kabul police chief's headquarters, said he had seen the bomber leap on to the bus as it it was moving slowly away, its door wide open.
"It was a very, very successful suicide attack," a Taliban commander, Mullah Hayatullah Khan, told the Reuters news agency by satellite phone.
"We have plans for more successful attacks in future."
The Taliban, ousted from power in 2001 by US-led forces, and their al-Qaeda allies have adopted the tactics of Iraq's bloody insurgency to try to dispel the notion that government and foreign security forces are in control of the country.
Eighteen bodies, mostly police officers, and 10 wounded had been taken to nearby Jamhuriat Hospital, a doctor there said. There was chaos at the hospital, where a crowd gathered to check if relatives and friends were among the dead and injured.