KABUL — With political tensions running high in advance of President Hamid Karzai’s expected announcement this week of his new Cabinet, a suicide car bomber struck in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring more than 40.
Officials said the target may have been former Vice President Ahmad Zia Massoud, whose house was badly damaged in the attack. Massoud is the brother of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a much-revered leader of the anti-Taliban resistance who was assassinated in 2001 just before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Ahmad Zia Massoud left his residence shortly before the explosion and was uninjured, said an aide, Isahaq Faiez. However, two of his bodyguards were among the dead.
Like many past attackers, the bomber managed to penetrate a wealthy area of the capital, where tight security measures are in place.
The ease with which attackers are able to gain access to high-security zones has in the past raised suspicions of collusion between the Taliban and Afghan security forces.
The blast, which sent black plumes of smoke billowing into the air, brought traffic in the city center nearly to a standstill.
Witnesses said ambulances were not on the scene right away, so neighbors and passers-by helped the injured as best they could.
“Everybody was helping carry the wounded away themselves,” said Farhad Yaftali, a construction company worker.
Aides to Massoud said they were certain he was the intended target, although authorities initially believed the bomber might have been trying to approach a hotel several hundred yards away that is frequented by foreigners and diplomats.
A spokesman for Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry, Zemeri Bashary, said the eight dead included four women. He said more than three dozen others were hurt.
The attack took place as senior Afghan officials were convening about a mile and a half away to discuss measures to combat corruption, a topic of keen interest to Western governments.
Karzai, who is beginning a second term as president after a fraud-tainted election, has been warned that he must clean up graft and bribery in his government or face the potential loss of backing by the United States and other key members of the Western military coalition.
