REYKJAVIK, Oct 23 (AFP) - Three Icelandic peacekeepers were wounded in the suicide bomb attack on central Kabul's famous Chicken Street on Saturday, Icelandic officials said on Saturday.
The three were members of the NATO-led multinational ISAF force serving in Afghanistan.
"Two received minor shrapnel wounds and a third sustained very minor injuries," Thorbjorn Jonsson of the Icelandic foreign ministry's crisis response unit told AFP.
A suicide bomber blew himself up at 3:30 pm (1100 GMT) in front of one of the scores of carpet shops lining the souvenir street, wounding seven people including the peacekeepers, Afghan police said.
The other four injured included a foreign woman and three Afghans.
Witnesses said the bomber blew himself up as he approached the peacekeepers, but Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Poulain of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul said in a statement that there was no indication the peacekeepers were directly targeted.
"There is no evidence of a direct attack against ISAF. What happened will not deter ISAF's support to the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police," the statement said.
The peacekeeping force, currently numbering 9,000 troops from more than 30 countries, has been helping Afghan forces patrol Kabul under a United Nations mandate since December 2001.
10/23/2004 16:49 GMT - AFP