Afghan suicide blast kills 12, wounds 42

KABUL, Sep 30 (Reuters) A suicide bomber today blew himself up outside the Interior Ministry in Kabul, killing 12 people and wounding 42, the Afghan government said.

Afghanistan is suffering the most serious violence since the hardline Taliban were ousted in 2001 and while most of it has been in the south and east, attacks in Kabul have increased.

The bomber struck as Interior Ministry staff were arriving for work, getting off buses by an entrance, police said. Saturday is a work day in Afghanistan.

Police had tried to stop the man, a witness said.

''It was a tall, fat guy. Police tried to stop him but he got away from them and ran towards the entrance and blew himself up among the people,'' said a young man named Ramin.

The Interior Ministry said police and civilians were among the dead and wounded. Several small shops were badly damaged.

A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayat Khan, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, claimed responsibility. The Taliban have claimed numerous other attacks on government workers.

Suicide attacks used to be rare in Afghanistan but there have been about 70 since January last year, most on foreign and government forces. About 200 people have been killed, most of them civilians.

Taliban insurgents have been putting up fierce resistance in battles with foreign and government troops in the countryside, in particular in the south.

NATO, which will soon take command of most foreign troops across the whole country, has acknowledged it underestimated the scale of the Taliban opposition.

Nearly 140 foreign troops have also been killed and the toll is raising doubts among the public in some NATO countries about the Afghan mission.

An Italian soldier wounded by a roadside blast on September 26 died today. Another Italian was killed in the blast and a third is in hospital.

''STOP THE SANCTUARIES'' President Hamid Karzai condemned the suicide attack and in an apparent reference to neighbouring Pakistan, said militant sanctuaries had to end.

''I ... call on the international community to work with Afghanistan in stopping sanctuaries that raise, train and brainwash young people to become suicide attackers,'' he said.

Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf have accused each other of not doing enough to combat violence along their common border. Afghanistan say Taliban leaders run the insurgency from Pakistani territory. Pakistan denies that.

U S President George W. Bush hosted a dinner for Karzai and Musharraf in Washington this week to try to ease tension between the two crucial allies in the war on terrorism.

Karzai told a news conference in Kabul that Pakistan had assured Afghanistan it would take action against all militants in Pakistan.

Several thousand people have been killed in Afghan violence this year, most of them militants, according to foreign forces and the government. The Taliban deny suffering heavy losses.

Reuters SY DB2149