Security forces inspect the bomb site in Kabul. Source: AP

At least 18 people were wounded in the attack, which comes three days after 14 people — mostly foreigners — were killed in a Taliban assault on a Kabul guesthouse that trapped dozens attending a concert.

The suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car against the convoy near Kabul airport during morning rush hour. The convoy included two vehicles of the EU Police Mission in Afghanistan.

“A suicide bomber detonated his Toyota sedan targeting a foreign forces convoy near Kabul airport today at 9am (2.30pm AEST),” Kabul police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi said. “The target of the attacker was the foreign forces convoy. So far we have two women dead, 18 others wounded, all of them civilians.”

Three children were among those wounded, he said.

A foreigner working with EUPOL was also killed, with the London foreign office confirming he was a British national.

“All we can say at this moment is that two of EUPOL’s vehicles were there at the time of the ­attack. The one killed inside a ­vehicle was a foreigner who worked for EUPOL,” said senior press officer Aziz Basam.

Three mission members who were also in the vehicle suffered injuries, which were not believed to be life-threatening, EUPOL said in a separate statement.

Troops hauled away the body of a person in military-style uniform, pulled out from the twisted wreck of a badly damaged sedan.

Taliban insurgents, who launched their spring offensive across Afghanistan late last month, claimed responsibility for the attack.

“A suicide attack carried out on foreign forces near the gate of Kabul airport,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter.

Afghan forces are facing their first fighting season against the Taliban without the full support of US-led foreign combat troops.

Deputy interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said three civilian vehicles, one of them belonging to foreign troops, were damaged in the attack.

Khalilullah Hodkhil, the deputy head of Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, said he had received the bodies of two young girls and 19 wounded people.

“All of them are civilians, including women and children,” he said. “They are under treatment and their wounds are not life-threatening.”

The attack came after NATO on Wednesday announced plans to retain a small military presence in Afghanistan after next year to help strengthen local ­security forces.

The Taliban has waged a 13-year war to topple the US-backed Afghan government. Official ­efforts to bring the insurgents to the negotiating table have borne little fruit.

AFP