A suicide car bombing, which is the second in five days, killed at least 10 persons including three U. S. soldiers and injured 15 civilians on Friday morning in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan.

The explosion, apparently targeting a U.S. military convoy, occurred at 10:20 a.m. local time (GMT 0550) about 100 meters outside the U.S. embassy.

It killed at least eight Afghan civilians and injured 15 others, Alishah Paktyawal, deputy chief of Kabul police department told Xinhua.

A Xinhua journalist saw there lay the bodies of two killed U.S. soldiers of coalition forces, a female and two males, at the site of the explosion, which happened three days before the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks in New York.

However, some reports quoted police and rescue officials as saying that up to seven foreign soldiers and security contractors had been killed in the blast. The number can't be verified yet.

Chris Miller, a coalition spokesman, told Xinhua, "There are some coalition casualties in the explosion, but we still don't know the exact number."

Damaged vehicles had caught big fire with plumes of smoke rising, and fire engines, with sirens railing, were rushing to the site to put down the fire.

Remains of bodies, vehicles' wreckage and broken glass are scattering on the ground, while foreign and Afghan troops as well as Afghan police have condoned off the spot.

The site is also about 50 meters south of the monument of Ahmed Shar Massood.

Saturday would be the fifth anniversary of the murder of Massood, who is a national hero widely respected by Afghans due to his unparalleled performance in fighting the Soviet and the Taliban.

The former relatively clam Kabul has witnessed rising violence and bloodshed in the past weeks.

A suicide attack killed six persons including a British soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and injured seven others on Monday in eastern Kabul.

At least six rockets hit Kabul from unknown locations in several attacks in the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, another 21 insurgents were killed in Operation Medusa in the southern Kandahar province, the NATO-led ISAF said in a statement received on Friday.

The militants were killed on Thursday, the sixth day of the operation, which was launched by around 2,000 ISAF and Afghan troops to wipe out rebels in Panjwai and Zhari districts.

Operation Medusa is the largest one against Taliban rebels since ISAF took command in southern Afghanistan from coalition forces on July 31.

About 10,000 ISAF troops are deployed in southern Afghanistan, a traditional stronghold of the Taliban, to fight insurgents there.

Afghanistan is suffering from a rise of Taliban-linked violence this year, during which more than 2,100 people, mostly Taliban rebels, have been killed. Among the fatalities are over 100 foreign troops.

Source: Xinhua