Afghanistan: Suicide car bomber hits Kabul

At least one person has been killed and 22 others wounded in a suicide bombing in the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to government officials.

The explosion took place on Friday around 9:00am local time (04:30 GMT) near a vehicle belonging to foreign workers in the eastern part of the city, Najib Danish, a spokesperson for the interior ministry, said.

Nasrat Rahimi, Danish’s deputy spokesperson, said a 12-year-old boy was killed in the blast.

Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley, reporting from Kabul, said Afghanistan’s interior ministry confirmed the attack was a suicide bombing against “foreign forces”.

“We understand that to be NATO employees who were travelling in convoy,” Birtley said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion.

The Afghan capital has seen a spate of deadly attacks carried out by the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, whose affiliate in Afghanistan has grown in recent years.

In January, Taliban claimed responsibility for two separate attacks that killed nearly 130 people.

The blast comes two days after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered to recognise the Taliban as a legitimate political group, as part of a proposed process he said could lead to talks aimed at ending more than 16 years of war. 

On Thursday, Taliban fighters killed at least six policemen in an attack at a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, officials said.