Four dead, nine injured in latest Kabul suicide bombing

A suicide bomber has killed at least four people and injured a further nine in southeast Kabul, Afghanistan, officials said.

The bomber targeted a Ministry of Defence bus laden with soldiers.

Emergency officials have confirmed that three people in the vehicle had died while a woman bystander also died.

"The bomber was on foot when he detonated himself next to a bus carrying Ministry of Defence staff to work," the interior ministry spokesman, Seddiq Seddiqi said.

A Taliban spokesman using a recognised Twitter account said his group carried out the attack.

The bombing was the first major attack in the Afghan capital since Taliban fighters launched a suicide attack on January 17 at a popular restaurant killing 21 people, Afghans and foreigners alike.

They have stepped up their campaign ahead of the departure of Nato-led combat troops at the end of 2014.

The latest attack is the third by the insurgents in Kabul in just over a week. On 17 January, 21 people died in a gun and bomb attack on a restaurant.

Government buses carrying security forces and workers to ministries in the capital are a common sight - and an easy target.