Car bomb kills seven at U.S. security firm in Afghan capital

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A powerful car bomb detonated outside the office of a U.S. security contractor in the Afghan capital Sunday, killing at least seven people, including two Americans, and wounding several others, officials and witnesses said.

Hours earlier, a blast wrecked a religious school in southeastern Afghanistan, reportedly killing at least eight children and one adult and underlining the country's fragile security as it moves toward its first post-Taliban election in October.

Security officials have issued several warnings in recent weeks about possible car bombings and suicide attacks in the Afghan capital. NATO forces patrolling Kabul have warned that anti-government militants, including the ousted Taliban, could try to mount spectacular attacks in a bid to disrupt the landmark presidential election scheduled for Oct. 9.

The Kabul explosion hit the office of Dyncorp Inc., an American firm that provides security for Afghan President Hamid Karzai and works for the U.S. government in Iraq, said Nick Downie of the Afghan-istan NGO Security Office.

"The explosion ... killed at least seven people," Karzai's office said in a statement. "Two Americans, three Nepalese and two Afghan nationals, including a child, have been confirmed dead."

Karzai and U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad expressed shock at the bombing.

An American embassy statement said the contractor also was involved in a project to train Afghan police, a key element of the internationally backed plan to prevent the country from reverting to a haven for al-Qaida militants.

The company is believed to employ Nepalese and Americans in Afghanistan, where it reportedly is involved in anti-drug efforts.

"This cowardly attack will not deter U.S. participation in the ongoing effort to help Afghanistan stand on its own feet," Khalilzad said, describing the bombing as a "terrorist attack."

Downie said he and others at the scene pulled five or six seriously injured people -- including apparent Westerners -- from the burning building.

"Some were obviously Dyncorp staff," said Downie, a former British soldier who advises relief groups on security.

Dyncorp Inc. is a division of Computer Sciences Corp. based in El Segundo, Calif. CSC spokesman Mike Dickerson said the Dyncorp office was hit by "an apparent car bombing."

"There were a number of a casualties," he said. "We are working to confirm the number and identities of the victims. Our operations in Afghanistan are continuing."

The blast occurred in Kabul's Shar-e Naw district, a bustling area with the offices of international organizations and guesthouses used by their staff.

The Dyncorp building burned fiercely after the explosion, which blew out the windows of surrounding houses.

Reporters saw the mutilated body of one man lying in the street before Afghan police and foreign security guards pushed them back at gunpoint.

Emergency workers ferried the victims to a hospital in ambulances and picked body parts from the street.

Residents said a boy living in a neighboring house and a cobbler in a nearby stall were killed, and as many as eight other people were wounded.

"It was a very, very big explosion, and there were a lot of injured," said Ahmad Emal, a young shopkeeper watching from behind the police cordon. "These foreigners should leave the residential areas."

The charred wreckage of a car lay in front of the burning house. Several hundred yards away, Afghans crowded around what appeared to be the engine block, and officials said a bomb almost certainly was concealed inside the car.

On Saturday night, an explosion ripped through the Mullah Khel religious school near Zormat, 80 miles south of Kabul, in southeastern Paktia province. Eight children between the ages of 7 and 15 were killed, and 15 other people were injured, three of them critically, said Paktia Gov. Asadullah Wafa.

But U.S. Master Sgt. Ann Bennett said nine children and one adult were killed, and several other people were wounded. The differing death tolls could not immediately be explained.

The U.S. military, which sent medics to help after the blast, said the cause was unclear.

Wafa said a bomb was planted on a second-floor balcony by "puppets listening to their bosses outside the country."

He did not elaborate, but his remark appeared aimed at neighboring Pakistan, which many Afghans accuse of not doing enough to prevent Taliban militants from mounting cross-border attacks.

The school received funding from an international aid group, Wafa said, which could have made it a target for Taliban-led militants.

The school also was used to register voters for the elections -- a process which Taliban militants vowed to disrupt.

A dozen election workers and more than 20 Afghans carrying voter identification cards have been killed in attacks blamed largely on the Taliban, ousted by a U.S. invasion in late 2001.

U.N. officials said they were investigating whether the school explosion was linked to the upcoming election.

Also Sunday, the military confirmed that Mullah Rozi Khan, a Taliban leader in Zabul province, was killed in a joint U.S.-Afghan raid Friday.

No American or Afghan soldiers were reported injured.

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Associated Press reporter Stephen Graham in Kabul contributed to this report.