Four die in Kabul bus bombing
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The explosion knocked the bus off the side of the road.
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SPECIAL REPORT
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(CNN) -- Four people were killed Saturday -- including three German peacekeepers -- in an apparent suicide attack on a bus near Kabul, Afghanistan.
A news release from U.S. Central Command said 36 people -- including eight members of the International Security Assistance Force -- were injured in the blast, which was set off when the suicide bomber's vehicle approached the bus and detonated.
The bus was traveling near the Afghan National Army training facility in Kabul around 8:30 a.m. local time (midnight ET), when the explosion knocked the bus off the side of the road.
Soon after the explosion, dozens of German peacekeepers formed a cordon around the street, not allowing any vehicles past. Witnesses described a chaotic scene, with bits of metal strewn around.
Before Saturday's attack, 15 peacekeepers had died on duty in Afghanistan, all of them in accidents.
In addition, 62 Spanish peacekeepers died in May when their plane crashed in Turkey as they were returning home after a four-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.
On May 29, a German soldier died and another was injured when their vehicle ran over a land mine. German officials said they believed the deaths were caused by an old land mine.
On May 15, two Norwegian peacekeeping troops were shot and injured as they were traveling on a road north of Kabul. Two days earlier, a British soldier was slightly wounded when an Afghan man threw a grenade at a peacekeeping base.
Some 5,000 peacekeepers are in Kabul. Germany and the Netherlands are currently in joint command of the force, but are due to hand over control to NATO in August.
At about that time, the German and Dutch forces are scheduled to return home and be replaced by about 1,800 Canadian soldiers.
