Taliban suicide attack kills 5 foreign guards in Kabul

KABUL, July 22 (AFP): A Taliban suicide attacker riding a motorbike killed five foreign guards in Kabul on Tuesday, the latest blast to rock the Afghan capital during an impasse over presidential election results.
The attacker struck a compound near the outer perimeter of Kabul airport, which was targeted last week when insurgents seized a building in the same area and fired towards the airport using automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
Taliban insurgents oppose the election process, which is currently undergoing an audit of all eight million votes due to a dispute between the two contenders over fraud allegations.
"The US Embassy strongly condemns the terrorist attack on Camp Gibson in Kabul this morning which killed five foreign national security guards," a US statement said.
"We offer our condolences to the families of the victims, and hope for the speedy recovery of the Afghans and foreign nationals injured in the attack."
It gave no further details on Camp Gibson, but Kabul police said it was a joint compound used by the interior ministry's counter-narcotics department and foreign forces.
"Our initial reports show the explosion took place inside the foreigners' compound," Kabul police chief Zahir Zahir told AFP. "The foreigners were exercising inside at the time."
"Our teams are on the ground investigating how an attacker on a motorcycle entered the compound."