KABUL, Afghanistan -- A Taliban attacker detonated his car bomb next to an international military convoy Tuesday, killing three members of the NATO-led force and wounding nearly 20 troops and civilians, officials said.
Security forces in full battle gear administered CPR to wounded comrades shortly after the early-morning blast that rattled nearby neighborhoods and sent a plume of smoke high into the sky. The attack happened only a couple of hundred yards from the U.S. Embassy, on a main Kabul road that leads to the airport.
The statement from the military coalition said five troops were wounded in addition to the three killed, but did not disclose their nationalities. The Polish Defense Ministry said one Polish soldier, Sgt. Rafal Celebudzki, was killed in the blast and two other Poles were wounded.
The car bomb attack turned several vehicles into twisted metal and bloodied and dazed Afghan passers-by. Some people scooped up the wounded into their arms and carried them to medical workers. Ashmat Stanikzai, a spokesman for the Kabul police, said 13 Afghans were wounded. More than a dozen vehicles were damaged, the police said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened next to a coalition base that houses many Americans.
The three military deaths -- and a fourth in the country's east -- raised the total number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 59, at least 42 of whom were American.
The U.S. and NATO military commitment to Afghanistan is winding down, with all combat troops scheduled to be out of the country by the end of the year. But violence remains. Afghan Interior Minister Omar Dawoodzai said Tuesday that more than 1,500 Afghan police have been killed in violence in the past six months. Nearly 1,000 Afghan civilians have also been killed, he said.
In the aftermath of the blast, Afghan and foreign troops secured the area as fire and rescue vehicles moved in. Investigators inspected an empty black sport utility vehicle, its windows smashed and exterior pockmarked with shrapnel.
The military coalition also said Tuesday that one of its troops died after being shot by an individual wearing an Afghan army uniform in a separate attack in the country's east.
The coalition said it will continue to train and advise Afghan security forces "and does not view these incidents as representative of the positive relationship between our forces."
The spike in violence comes as the country's two presidential contenders continue negotiations to form some sort of national unity government. Afghans first voted in this year's presidential election in April and voted again in a two-man runoff election in June.
President Hamid Karzai on Monday hosted the two candidates -- Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai -- in hopes of helping them reach agreement on a power-sharing government. The meeting ended without a deal.
Meanwhile, a group of militants from Afghanistan attacked an army post in neighboring Pakistan on Tuesday morning, sparking a shootout that left 11 insurgents and three soldiers dead, the Pakistani military said, as government warplanes targeted three militant hideouts in a Taliban stronghold in the Khyber tribal region near the Afghan border, killing at least 20 insurgents.
"A group of terrorists" crossed over from Afghanistan and attacked the army's Dandi Kuch post in North Waziristan before fleeing back, the military said in a statement. Three soldiers were "martyred" in the fighting, it said.
The military said Pakistani security forces "valiantly" repulsed the attack and captured one of the attackers.
Pakistan and Afghanistan share a volatile and porous border that is often the scene of cross-border attacks. Militants from both countries also cross to use the neighboring country's soil as a safe haven.
The latest cross-border attack came as the Pakistani army is carrying out a major offensive against Pakistani Taliban and foreign militants in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The operation is aimed at rooting out those accused of targeting U.S. forces in Afghanistan and attacking civilians and security forces in Pakistan.
The authorities launched the June 15 operation after a militant attack on one of the country's busiest airports in the port city of Karachi. Since then, the military has killed about 1,000 militants while it lost more than 80 soldiers.
The identity of the dead was not immediately known and the military gave no further details. Pakistani tribal areas are off limits to journalists.
Information for this article was contributed by Monika Scislowska and Munir Ahmed of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/17/2014