NEWS CENTRAL/S. ASIA Afghan troops killed in bus bomb A crime scene investigator works at the site
of the blast in Kabul [Reuters]
At least 31 people have now died after a bomb tore through a bus carrying Afghan soldiers in the country's capital, Kabul.
The explosion on Saturday morning, carried out by a suicide bomber in army uniform, split the bus in two. A police officer at the scene said the bus had been full at the time. The Taliban said it carried out the attack. The health and defence ministries have said that most of the dead were military personnel, going to work at the defence ministry, but several civilians were also killed.
The blast shattered nearby shop windows in the residential suburb. Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi, the public health minister, said: "At this time I can tell you that 31, almost all of them military personnel, have been martyred."
Fatemi also said that 17 of the wounded were in a critical condition.
The attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body as he approached the bus, the ministry said in a statement.
The attack is the deadliest in the city since an explosion on a police bus in June that killed as many as 35 people.
Carnage
Mohammad Zaher, a witness who had cuts to his forehead from flying glass, said: "The explosion happened just after a group of Afghan National Army soldiers got on to the bus."
Mohammad Azim, a police officer at the scene, said: "For 10 or 15 seconds, it was like an atom bomb - fire, smoke and dust everywhere," Azim said.
Sulahdin, an army officer at the scene who goes by one name, said there were more than 50 people on the bus at the time of the explosion.
Television pictures had showed the bodies of men who appeared to be Afghan national army soldiers being pulled from the wreckage.
Some of the dead were still in their seats.
Month of 'operations'
Zabihullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman, said the attack was part of a Taliban "operation" for the holy month of Ramadan.
There have been more than 100 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, many blamed on the Taliban.
While most attacks occur in remote areas in the south and east of Afghanistan, there have been a series of blasts inside Kabul this year.
This attack was the first inside the heavily patrolled capital since a suicide bomb struck a Nato armoured vehicle on September 21, killing a French soldier and wounding several Afghans. Source: Agencies
Map highlighting location of Afghanistan.
A suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus carrying more than 50 people in Kabul, Afghanistan killing at least 31 and critically injuring 17 of the people on board. 28 were Afghan soldiers, and so far at least two civilians have been killed.

"At this time I can tell you that 31, almost all of them military personnel, have been martyred," said Afghanistan's Public Health Minister, Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi.

Reports say that the suicide bomber, who was dressed in a military uniform, walked onto the bus and blew himself up, tearing it into two pieces. Several businesses were also damaged in the attack and military personnel were retrieving body parts from trees.

Zabiullah Mujahid of the Taliban, says they are responsible for the blast and stated that the bomber was 'Azizullah', a Kabul resident.