Explosion kills six in Afghan 'bomb factory'

An explosion injured six people in the Afghan capital of Kabul at what international peacekeepers described as a clandestine bomb factory.

Police who joined NATO troops in investigating the blast in a residential compound in west Kabul on Saturday arrested three men, peacekeepers’ spokesman Commander Chris Henderson said.

“It is believed that the explosion occurred as the three men were assembling bombs,” Henderson said.

“Their intended actions could easily have killed many innocent people.”

The family living there said they thought the explosives were for quarrying, district police chief Mohammed Alam Siasi said.

The blast injured three children, two women and one man, Henderson said. Their condition was not known.

Canadian troops found electrical switches, 20 kilos of explosives and 250 kilos of ammonium nitrate, a farm fertiliser which can be used to make explosives.

Kabul has seen a string of attacks by bombs and rockets over the past year.

Most have caused no injuries and little damage, although three soldiers from the NATO-led international peacekeeping force that patrols the capital have died this year in two suicide bombings and a grenade attack.