Taliban bomb blast kills eight in Kabul: police

KABUL, Aug 7: A Taliban bomb killed eight people and wounded five today when it struck a minibus in Kabul, police said, amid growing unrest in areas neighbouring the Afghan capital.NATO�s International Security Assistance Force, which has 130,000 US-led troops in Afghanistan, has also noted a spike in attacks countrywide in recent months, since the start of the insurgents� annual summer offensive.June saw the highest number of attacks in nearly two years, with more than 100 assaults a day across the country, including firefights and roadside bombings, the coalition said.�A remote-controlled mine struck a civilian minibus in Paghman district around 5:00 am today, killing eight people and injuring five,� Kabul police chief General Ayoub Salangi told AFP.The man who set off the bomb had been captured with the cooperation of local residents, Salangi said, describing him as a member of the hardline Islamist Taliban waging an insurgency against the Afghan government.All the dead were men, he said, apparently on their way to work in what is a usually peaceful area on the western outskirts of the city.For the past five years the number of civilians killed in the war has risen steadily, reaching a record 3,021 in 2011, with the vast majority of the deaths blamed on insurgents, according to UN figures.Roadside bombs are a favourite weapon of Taliban insurgents but an attack of this kind is rare in the capital, which is at times targeted in headline-grabbing assaults by suicide squads.Last week, Afghan officials said five insurgents were killed in a pre-dawn gunbattle, claiming to have foiled a major attack on an area of the capital home to Western embassies. (AGENCIES)