KABUL, Oct 10: A bomb struck a police bus in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, wounding more than a dozen people in the latest attack in Kabul.

The device was attached to a bicycle and exploded as the bus passed during the morning rush hour, Kabul police criminal investigation department chief Alishah Paktiawal said.

“It was a remote-controlled bomb fixed on a bicycle on the roadside which targeted a ministry of interior police bus,” he said.

“More than 10 police are wounded. Two to three civilians who were in a taxi behind the bus are also wounded.”

A purported spokesman for the Taliban, Yousuf Ahmadi, said that the extremist movement had been behind the attack.

“Our mujahedin targeted a police bus with a remote-controlled bomb,” he said, claiming 14 police had been killed or wounded. The Taliban frequently exaggerate their casualty claims.

The blast blew out the windows of the bus and those of nearby shops were also shattered.

A shopkeeper said he had seen several people hurt in the explosion, including his brother who had been outside the shop.

“I was busy in my shop and suddenly heard a big bang followed by a big cloud of dust,” said the man, who gave his name only as Sadiq.

“When I came out of the shop, I saw my brother was wounded in his right arm and his leg. In the shop next door two friends were badly wounded, one with serious facial injuries — he is hard to recognise.

“I also helped two wounded civilians who had fallen into a ditch.”

A French general in charge of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in Kabul province said on Monday that two bomb cells had been identified in the city.

The Nato-led ISAF was working with Afghan forces to “neutralise these two IED cells identified,” Brigadier General Frank Le Bot told reporters.

He said the increase in attacks appeared to be a result of military operations that had squeezed insurgents from their traditional strongholds in the east and south of the country.

In another incidents reported on Tuesday, police in the southeastern province of Zabul said troops killed two Taliban rebels in return fire on Monday after the insurgents attacked ISAF and Afghan soldiers who were distributing food.

Two more were wounded as was an Afghan soldier, said Noor Mohammad Paktine, Zabul police chief.—AFP