Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry says the bombing that targeted the convoy of the country’s first vice president on Wednesday morning killed 10 people and wounded more than a dozen others, including several of the vice president’s bodyguards.
First Vice President Amrullah Saleh suffered minor burns in the attack.
The Interior Ministry says the bomb went off as Saleh’s convoy was passing through a section of Kabul with shops that sell gas cylinders. The blast ignited a fire that set ablaze a number of shops.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing and the Taliban quickly denied they were behind the attack.
According to spokesman Razwan Murad, the bombing targeted the convoy of Afghanistan’s first vice president, Amrullah Saleh, as it passed through Kabul on Wednesday morning.
Saleh, who is also Afghanistan’s former intelligence chief, said in his first television appearance immediately after the attack that he was fine and had suffered only slight burns.
He appeared in the TV footage with bandages on one hand.
Me and my younger son who was also with me are fine, Saleh said in the footage. I have slight burns on my face and hand from the wave of the blast. I don’t have exact details right now, but I apologize to those who suffered casualties and those who lost their property in the attack.
His spokesman, Murad, called the attack a vicious terrorist attempt . The roads in the vicinity of the bombing were closed off.
The Interior Ministry’s spokesman, Tariq Arian, confirmed to The Associated Press that the bombing targeted Saleh’s convoy.
The explosion, he said, also ignited a huge fire in the area, a section of Kabul where shops sell gas cylinders for use in heating homes and cooking.