Herat, January 30:

A suicide attacker drove an explosives-laden vehicle into an Afghan army bus in the western city of Herat today, wounding 12 people, police and the army said.

The attacker struck the bus near the airport on the outskirts of the city as civilians were trying to enter the complex and the army vehicle was passing by, the defence ministry and Herat police chief Mohammad Shafiq Fazli told AFP.

“Ten soldiers and two civilians were wounded in the suicide attack,” a defence ministry statement said. Blood, body parts and the car used for the suicide attack were scattered across the area, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Afghan soldiers and police and NATO-led forces cordoned off the site. The blast gouged a crater into the tarmac and damaged the bus.

The defence ministry reported, meanwhile, that its troops had killed two “enemy” in southern Zabul province yesterday and seized weapons and motorbikes “used for terrorist activities.” Commanders of the nearly 40,000 foreign troops trying to help the government gain control of the country have warned of more suicide attacks this year as they are easier for the rebels than confronting troops in conventional battle.

Meanwhile, a report from Washington said the Taliban and terrorists in Afghanistan are drawing motivation from what they call success in Iraq with Al Qaeda and other foreign fighters operating in Pakistan providing the necessary link, according to Kabul’s envoy to US.

“But the objectives of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are slightly different. The Taliban don’t have any clear vision of what they would like for Afghanistan,” Ambassador Said T Jawad told Newsweek. Kabul also believed that Osama bin Laden is “spending most of his time in Pakistan”. “It’s too difficult in Afghanistan; many countries have their intelligence agencies there. He may be in Bajaur Agency.