A suicide car bomb exploded on a crowded street near the Indian Embassy in central Kabul during Monday morning rush hour, killing seven people and wounding 51, officials said. Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said five people were killed at the scene. Sayed Qabir, the chief of a Kabul hospital, said his staff treated eight people who were wounded in the blast, but two of them died. Officials at Jamuriyah hospital in Kabul posted a list of 51 people who were wounded in the blast. The list included three women and four children.

The bomb went off near the Indian Embassy, which sits across the street from Afghanistan's Interior Ministry on a tree-lined street in the center of the Afghan capital. Dozens of Afghan men line up outside the embassy every morning to apply for visas to India.

While Afghanistan has seen increasing violence in recent months, Kabul has been largely spared from random bomb attacks that Taliban militants use in their fight against Afghan and international troops.

In September 2006, a suicide bomber near the gates of the Interior Ministry killed 12 people and wounded 42 others. After that blast, additional guards and barriers were posted on the street.

Written By AMIR SHAH

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