Suicide bomb kills 31 soldiers in Kabul

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KABUL, Sept 29 (AFP): A suicide bomber wearing an army uniform blew up a bus carrying Afghan soldiers in Kabul Saturday, killing at least 31 military personnel and wounding many others, the defence ministry said.
Witnesses said several passers-by were also believed to have been killed in the blast near the city centre but authorities could not immediately provide a figure.
The insurgent Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in the city since a similar explosion on a police bus in June killed about 35 people.
The explosion blew out the roof and sides of the large bus, which was reduced to mangled metal.
Television pictures showed the bodies of men who appeared to be Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers being pulled from the wreckage. Debris was scattered across a wide area.
Seventeen of the wounded were in a critical condition, Public Health Minister Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi told AFP.
"At this time I can tell you that 31, almost all of them military personnel, have been martyred," he said during a visit to the city's main military hospital where many of the casualties were taken.
The suicide attacker, who had been wearing an army uniform, detonated explosives strapped to his body as he approached the bus, it said.
The vehicle was attacked in a residential suburb just northwest of the city centre. It had been taking soldiers and officers to work at the defence ministry.
The insurgent Taliban movement, behind a wave of suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, claimed responsibility.