KABUL, Afghanistan — In another burst of pre-election violence, a suicide car bomber targeted a Western military convoy Tuesday in Afghanistan’s capital, killing at least 10 people, including a soldier from the NATO-led force and two local workers for the United Nations.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which injured dozens of people, including two Western troops.
Two U.S. soldiers, meanwhile, died in a roadside bombing in eastern Afghanistan.
The car bombing, the second major strike by insurgents in four days in Kabul, took place on the busy main road leading east out of Kabul toward the city of Jalalabad. There is a British military base near the site of the attack.
While the bomber was apparently aiming at military vehicles belonging to the NATO-led force, most of the dead and wounded appeared to have been civilians. The nationality of the slain soldier was not immediately disclosed. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said that in addition to two of its civilian workers being killed, a third was hurt.
Violence has been increasing in advance of Thursday’s voting for president and provincial assemblies. Taliban commanders have warned people not to go to the polls and have threatened to attack polling places and other sites.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, seeking a second five-year term, faces a field of 30 challengers.
