Omar Sobhani / Reuters
Afghan security personnel investigate at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Sept. 18. A suicide bomber blew up a mini-bus carrying foreign and local contract workers near Kabul airport, with at least nine bodies lying near the wreckage, a Reuters witness at the scene said.
By NBC News and Reuters
KABUL -- A suicide bomber blew up a mini-bus carrying foreign and local contract workers near Kabul airport in Afghanistan on Tuesday, with at least nine bodies lying near the wreckage, a Reuters witness at the scene said.
Afghan insurgent group Hizb-e-Islami claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. They said it was in retaliation for the film about Prophet Mohammad.
"A woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up in response to the anti-Islam video," said Zubair Sediqqi, a spokesman for Hizb told Reuters.
A senior police source told Reuters that eight of those killed were foreigners working for an international courier company.
Sidiq Sidiqqi, the spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, told NBC News that there were foreigners in the van but we can not confirm any nationalities yet.
The attack underscored growing anger in Afghanistan over the film, which has enraged much of the Muslim world and led to the killing last week of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.
US-Afghan military operations suspended after attacks
Thousands of protesters clashed with police in the Afghan capital on Monday, burning cars and hurling rocks at security forces in the worst outbreak of violence since February rioting over the inadvertent burning of Korans by U.S. soldiers.
The toll was the highest on foreigners in the city since last April when an Afghan air force pilot gunned down eight U.S. military flight instructors and an American civilian adviser after an argument at Kabul International Airport.
Hizb-e-Islami, which means Islamic Party, is a radical militant group which shares some of the Taliban's anti-foreigner, anti-government aims, Reuters reported.
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