A suicide blast tore through a bus filled with police recruits and their trainers in central Kabul yesterday killing 35 people and wounding 52.

It was the fifth bombing in Afghanistan in three days and the biggest suicide attack since the Taleban were driven from power in 2001. Witnesses told The Times that the bomber jumped on to the bus just before it pulled away from a bus stop. The attack happened in the early morning outside the governor’s house and near a police station.

Among the dead were a number of civilians who were standing near the bus or who were in cars driving past.

The blast could be heard across Kabul and was so powerful that it shook nearby buildings.

“The guy who did this attack was one of ours. He was from Kabul and was 25 years old,” Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the ousted regime, told The Timesby satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

“This is part of our new programme. We will ambush Nato and coalition troops and we will also attack those puppets, such as the Afghan Army and the police, who work for the Government. We will carry out more and more attacks and we want and urge civilians to stay away,” he added.

Mullah Hayatullah, who also claims to speak for the Taleban, said: “It was a very, very successful suicide attack. We have plans for more successful attacks in the future.”

Muhammad Anwar, 55, told The Times from his hospital bed at the nearby Jamhuriat hospital: “My friend Hashim was the driver. I was sitting at the back of the bus. A strange man got on. I was going to confront him so I got up to walk to the front of the bus but before I could stand he blew himself up.” Mr Anwar’s clothes were covered in blood, his eye was blackened and he was having trouble hearing. “Hashim was blown to pieces. Lots of people died. They were all my friends,” Mr Anwar said, weeping.

Aziz Rahmin, 16, a witness, said: “People have lost their hands, their legs and one guy even had his brain hanging out.”

Nasibullah, 52, who works for the Attorney-General, said: “Several guys were on fire. They were screaming.”

Jawid Noorozai, 17, said: “One guy was yelling for help. The top of his head was cut off but no one would help him. They didn’t know what to do.”

The roof of the bus, a 45-seater, was torn off and two other vehicles near by were also badly damaged. One minibus had blood and body matter spattered inside and out and ball bearings from the bomb peppered its side. Human remains could be seen in nearby trees and pools of blood in the street. “I have never seen such a big bomb,” a member of the Crime Scene Investigation Unit said. Privately many police said that they were no longer willing to put themselves on the front line for as little as $50 (£25) a month.

“We are so angry with this bomb but who would allow their sons to join the police after seeing this?” Madhi Muhammadi, 18, a witness, said.

Publicly, however, the police remained defiant. “This is my country. We are not afraid. You can only die once and we have to do our job,” Azizullah, 34, a policeman, said.

A Western security expert in Kabul said: “[The bomber] used a lot of explosives and chose the location well. They are obviously learning from Iraq and have been for a while now.”

In another attack yesterday, three soldiers from the USled coalition and an Afghan interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar province.

Days of death

Sept 2002 30 people are killed and 107 wounded in a car-bomb attack in Kabul

June 2005 A man dressed in police uniform detonates a bomb outside a mosque in Kandahar, killing 19 and wounding 52 others during the funeral of a cleric opposed to the Taleban

Sept 2006 A suicide bomb leaves 16 dead, including two American soldiers, close to the US Embassy in Kabul. Days later a suicide attack near the Interior Ministry kills 12 with more than 40 wounded

Sept 2006 18 people are killed by a suicide bomber at a security checkpoint near the office of the governor of Helmand province in the southern city of Lashkar Gah

Feb 2007 As Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, visits Bagram air base, a bomb detonated near the gates kills at least 23 people, including an American soldier and a South Korean soldier

Sources: news agencies

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