12 dead, 105 injured in Afghan hospital bombing

A car bomb that exploded outside a private hospital in Kabul has killed 12 people and wounded 105, according to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health.

Three victims were civilian NATO contractors and the other nine were Afghan civilians, officials said.

The bomb was placed in a Toyota sedan, a security official at the scene said.

The powerful blast destroyed several vehicles, including a school van and an armoured pick-up truck which was left twisted and blackened, with another car in flames.

Paramedics carried away casualties on stretchers.

Al Jazeera’s Jeniffer Glasse, reporting form Kabul, said: “The target was apparently a vehicle carrying foreign contractors.”

In a statement, the Taliban denied it was behind the attack and no other group has claimed responsibility.

“One Resolute Support contracted civilian was killed in the attack and two others died of wounds,” said Brian Tribus, a spokesman for the US-led NATO mission known as Resolute Support.

Tribus did not say what nationalities the dead were.