Toll rises after blast at UK firm in Kabul

British security firm G4S said yesterday that five of its employees were killed and 32 injured on Wednesday in a Taliban-claimed attack on one of its compounds in Kabul. The company, which provides security for British diplomats, said one Briton and four Afghans were killed in the attack. Militants detonated a vehicle bomb outside the compound before trying to fight their way inside. “It is with great sadness that we can confirm that five of our employees were killed and 32 were injured, five of them seriously,” managing director Charlie Burbridge said in a statement.

“We are committed to our security role in support of the people of Afghanistan, and we are determined that incidents such as this will not prevent the vital work that the international community conducts from continuing,” he said. Afghan interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said earlier that 10 people were killed in the attack -- all of them Afghan nationals. But police spokesman Abdul Basir Mujahid said authorities were still working to identify the nationalities of the victims. A massive crater marked the spot where a vehicle bomb detonated outside a British security firm’s compound in Kabul.

In the latest Taliban-claimed attack in the Afghan capital, militants detonated the bomb and then tried to fight their way into the compound housing G4S security company late Wednesday, authorities said. “Five attackers were involved, one detonated his vehicle at the gate, and four others were on foot and they entered the building,” interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.  One survivor, Abdul Mohammad, said he and his nephew had just passed the compound when the bomb detonated.

“I lost consciousness but regained it in a few minutes,” he said from his hospital bed. “I felt a lot of debris hitting us. I tried to pick my nephew up but couldn’t do it... I realised he was dead.” G4S, which according to its website provides security for British diplomats in Kabul, was also targeted in an attack in March, when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives before reaching the entrance of the complex.