In yet more violent retaliation against a film mocking the Prophet Mohammed, the Hezb-i-Islami insurgent group has claimed responsibility for an attack that’s killed 12 people, including South Africans, in Kabul, Afghanistan today.

The Financial Times initially reported a short while ago that seven foreigners were amongst those killed in a suicide attack on a minibus in the Afghan capital today.

UPDATED: Eight South Africans have been confirmed killed in the suicide bomb attack, the department of international relations and co-operation has confirmed.

Foreign affairs spokesperson, Nelson Kgwete, told AFP:

Our mission in Islamabad in Pakistan, which is also accredited in Afghanistan, has informed us that eight South Africans were among the dead in the explosion which occurred in Kabul early this morning.

Our mission in Islamabad is working on the identity of the men and contacting their next of kin.

The FT continued that the foreigners killed were mostly Russian and South African pilots working for an international courier company.

Zubair Sediqqi, a spokesman for the militant faction, which does not usually carry out such attacks, is quoted as saying:

A woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up in response to the anti-Islam video.

General Mohammmad Dawod Amin, a deputy for Kabul’s police chief, confirmed this:

The target was a minivan carrying employees of a foreign company who had a contract with Americans. The seven foreigners killed were Russians and South Africans.

The FT continued:

The blast near Kabul airport underscored growing anger in Afghanistan over the film, which has enraged much of the Muslim world and led to the killing last week of the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.

Thousands of protesters clashed with police in the Afghan capital on Monday, burning cars and hurling rocks at security forces in the worst outbreak of violence since rioting in February prompted by the inadvertent burning of Korans by US soldiers.

The suicide attack was the first in Kabul involving a woman and the foreigners killed were mostly Russian and South African pilots working for an international courier company, senior police sources said.

The toll was the highest on foreigners in the city since last April when an Afghan air force pilot gunned down eight US military flight instructors and an American civilian adviser after an argument at Kabul International Airport.

Hezb-i-Islami, which means Islamic Party, is a radical militant group which shares some of the Taliban’s anti-foreigner, anti-government aims.

But the political wing of the group, founded by warlord and anti-Soviet fighter Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has recently been in nascent talks with Afghan president Hamid Karzai on a peace deal to end the 11-year war.

The attack on the van took place as it stopped to refuel near the airport.

Police said several civilians were caught up in the blast, which again underscored the ability of militants to bypass police checkpoints in the city, which had been manned by extra security forces after Monday’s rioting.

More than 30 people have now been killed in retaliation attacks for the film.

[Source: FT]