Suicide car bombing in Afghanistan-Seven killed

The Taliban targeted top government officials in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing seven people in a suicide car bombing and firing rockets at the vice president and interior minister, who escaped unhurt. Both attacks struck central Afghanistan, not far from the heavily secured capital Kabul, and were claimed by the militia leading a nearly 10-year insurgency against U.S.-led NATO troops and the Afghan government. In the first attack, an attacker drove a car laden with explosives towards a government building in Mahmud Raqi, capital Kapisa province northeast of Kabul. The government said the driver blew himself up when he was stopped at a nearby checkpoint. The interior ministry said in a statement: "At around 10:00am (0530 GMT), a suicide car bomb attack was carried out. As a result, five civilians and two policemen were martyred and one policeman and three civilians were injured."