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Deutsche Welle

Alishah Ahmadzai, deputy police chief of Kabul city, said the bomber was on foot when he attacked a German embassy vehicle, which was damaged in the blast. No diplomats were killed or wounded.

"The attack killed two Afghan civilians and wounded three others," Ahmadzai said. German embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.

A German foreign ministry spokesman said the only occupant of the vehicle, an Afghan employee of the embassy, was injured. Residents said the force of the blast broke windows in several nearby buildings.

The attack, which took place in front of Habibia high school on a road close to the parliament building in the western part of Kabul city, raises doubts about the prospects for stability in the war-torn country.

Violence has increased this year, with over 4,000 killed so far, a quarter of them civilians. The militants, who are said to control districts that border the capital, have intensified their attacks on the city recently.

No group took responsibility for the attack. Taliban militants, who lost power in late 2001 in the US military invasion, have conducted hundreds of similar attacks in the past.

Four civilians were killed and 20 were wounded in a suicide attack close to the US embassy in Kabul on Thursday.

Earlier this year, the Taliban carried out a series of high-profile attacks, including an aborted assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a suicide attack outside the Indian embassy, in which 60 people were killed.