7 dead in Kabul attack on firm supplying NATO

Seven people were killed on Tuesday in a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul targeting a foreign logistics company supplying NATO forces, police said. A plume of smoke rose above the scene of the attack in the north of the Afghan capital, which has been hit by a series of recent suicide strikes including on the Supreme Court, the airport and close to the presidential palace. "Four Nepali guards, one Afghan guard and two Afghan civilians have been killed," Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told AFP. Up to four other people were wounded. Salangi said that the attack started with a suicide bomb carried in a large truck, then two or three insurgents engaged guards with gunfire for 30-40 minutes. The blast left a large crater in the ground and all the assailants were killed, he said.Police said that the attack targeted a logistics transport company working with international forces and that some suicide vests were detonated at the site. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Taliban insurgents have said they were behind most of the recent strikes in Kabul, which come as pressure grows on the Afghan government to seek a peace deal with the rebels. The US has been pushing for peace talks to start as 100,000 US-led NATO combat troops prepare to withdraw next year and Afghan forces take on the fight against insurgents. But a Taliban office in Qatar that opened on June 18 to foster talks enraged President Hamid Karzai, who saw it as being styled as an unofficial embassy for a government-in-exile. He broke off bilateral security talks with the Americans and threatened to boycott any peace process altogether.