KABUL — In a grim demonstration of insurgents’ ability to strike even in tightly guarded districts, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a supermarket in a wealthy enclave of the Afghan capital Friday, killing at least eight people, including three foreign women and a child, and injuring more than a dozen others, police said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, declaring that the attack had been aimed at foreigners, in particular the head of the Western security firm Blackwater, now known as Xe Services. It was unclear whether any of the company’s personnel were at the store.
The bombing, the deadliest attack in Kabul in nearly a year, gutted the ground floor of the store, igniting small fires, splintering storefront windows, collapsing shelves, and leaving the floor strewn with canned goods, cookies and cereal. Smoke billowed as bloodied victims staggered into the street.
The explosion, in a neighborhood dotted with Western embassies and other international organizations, heightened anxiety in the foreign community, which has been rattled in recent months by President Hamid Karzai’s move to rein in private security firms that provide protection to most foreign installations.
Karzai condemned the bombing, as did the U.S. Embassy, which called it a senseless attack on a “peaceful place of commerce.”
The blast shattered what had been a relative lull in attacks in the capital over much of the past year, although violence had been creeping upward in recent weeks.
Speaking outside the shattered supermarket, the Kabul police chief, Gen. Abdul Baseer Salangee, vowed a thorough investigation.
He said the nationality of the dead child was not yet known. Afghan beggar children often cluster outside Western-style markets, pleading for change.
Friday is the main prayer day of the Muslim week, when many shops and businesses are closed. But it was a busy afternoon at the supermarket because it caters to a mainly foreign clientele, together with wealthy Afghans.
Security at the store was relatively light, with armed guards at the door but without the bag checks and pat-downs that are common at many other Kabul establishments, especially those where foreigners gather.
