A Taliban suicide car bomber struck a French restaurant popular with foreigners in Kabul Friday, killing two people in a New Year's day attack that marks the second insurgent assault in the Afghan capital in a week.
Fifteen others were wounded in the attack on Le Jardin, an Afghan-owned eatery, which caused a piercingly loud explosion and left a building engulfed in flames.
The assault comes a day after Afghanistan announced four-way talks in Pakistan on January 11, aimed at jump-starting peace negotiations with the resurgent Taliban.
"We can confirm a suicide car bomb attack on Le Jardin," Fraidoon Obaidi, the head of Kabul's Criminal Investigation Department, told AFP.
"We are busy extinguishing the fire at the scene... two Afghans have been killed and 15 others wounded," he added.