IS attack on Nato convoy in Kabul kills eight people

A powerful blast targeting an armoured Nato convoy in Kabul killed at least eight people and wounded 28 yesterday, including three coalition troops, officials said in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

The explosion, which came during morning rush hour on a busy road near the US embassy and Nato headquarters, killed "mostly" civilians, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP without giving a breakdown.

Three coalition service members received "non-life threatening wounds" but are in stable condition, a spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan said, without confirming their nationalities.

The attack, claimed by IS via its Amaq propaganda agency, comes three weeks after the US dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on the jihadist group's hideouts in eastern Afghanistan, triggering global shockwaves.

Monday's blast also comes days after the Taliban launched their "spring offensive", heralding a surge in fighting as the US seeks to craft a new Afghan strategy and Nato mulls boosting troop levels to break the "stalemate" against the resurgent militants.

The attack, which IS said was a suicide car bomb and Nato said was an improvised explosive device (IED), damaged two of the convoy's heavily armoured vehicles and left a small crater in the road.

MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles, which are designed to withstand large explosions, are routinely used by international forces moving around Kabul.

At least three civilian cars were also damaged, with one ablaze, while windows were shattered up to several hundred metres away. Firefighters and ambulances rushed stunned survivors to hospital as President Ashraf Ghani slammed the blast as a "criminal act".

Nato commander in Afghanistan General John Nicholson has said the US decision to drop the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast in Nangarhar province last month was a "very clear message" to IS: "If they come to Afghanistan they will be destroyed".