A Taliban attacker detonated his car bomb next to an international military convoy in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul on Tuesday, killing three troops from the NATO-led force and wounding nearly 20 troops and civilians, officials said, according to Reuters.
Security forces in full battle gear administered CPR to wounded comrades shortly after the 8:10 a.m. blast, Reuters reported. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack happened only a couple hundred yards from the U.S. Embassy, on a main Kabul road that leads to the airport, according to Reuters.
The statement from the military coalition known as ISAF said five troops were wounded in addition to the three killed. It did not say which nationalities the troops were, Reuters reported. The attack happened next to an ISAF base that houses many Americans.
The three military deaths, and a fourth in the country's east, brought the total number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 59, at least 42 of whom were American, according to Reuters.
Ashmat Stanikzai, a spokesman for the Kabul police, said 13 Afghans were wounded. More than a dozen vehicles were damaged, the police said, Reuters reported.
In the aftermath of the blast, Afghan and foreign troops secured the area as fire and rescue vehicles moved in, according to Reuters.
Investigators inspected an empty black SUV, its windows smashed and exterior pockmarked with shrapnel, Reuters reported.
The spike in violence comes as the country's two presidential contenders continue negotiations to form some sort of national unity government, according to Reuters.
Afghans first voted in this year's presidential election in April, and voted again in a two-man runoff election in June, Reuters reported.
President Hamid Karzai hosted the two candidates on Monday in hopes of helping them reach agreement on a power-sharing government, but the meeting ended without a deal, according to Reuters.
