KABUL, Nov 27: A suicide car bomber set off a huge blast on Tuesday near two armoured vehicles used by US-led coalition troops in Kabul, killing at least two civilians and wounding four other people including two Pakistani road construction workers.

The insurgent Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the blast in the Wazir Akbar Khan district near the city centre, close to the Pakistan embassy and a World Bank building.

The upmarket area is home to foreign embassies and aid agencies.

“It was a suicide bombing targeting foreigners,” said Kabul’s criminal investigation police chief, General Alishah Paktiawal. “We have two martyrs. One was a passerby and the other was a gate guard.”

The bomber’s vehicle was reduced to its charred engine and the force of the explosion shattered windows for several streets.

The target was a US-led coalition convoy of armoured vehicles, two of which were badly damaged, an AFP reporter said.

“It was coalition soldiers. There were no injuries,” coalition spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Johnson told AFP.

US and Afghan security forces raced to the scene, where broken glass and pieces of the bomber’s vehicle littered the street in a neighbourhood of the capital where many foreigners live. The body of one victim lay in the street.

US soldiers were removing communications equipment from the wreckage.—Agencies