* Taliban claims responsibility for suicide attack in Kabul
* Attack targeted minibus carrying Afghan security forces
* Third bomb attack in Afghan capital in less than a month
(Updates toll, adds detail throughout)
By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed two people and wounded more than 35 near the Afghan parliament on Wednesday, officials said, the third bomb attack in the capital Kabul in less than a month.
Violence is at its worst since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the hardline Islamist Taliban in 2001 after it refused to hand over al Qaeda militants, including Osama bin Laden, following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
But attacks in the Afghan capital had been relatively rare in the past year, particularly since a "ring of steel" was erected in the city before a parliamentary election in September.
The suicide bomber on Wednesday targeted a minibus carrying Afghan intelligence personnel in a western district of the city near to the country's parliament building, said Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul's crime investigation unit.
Zahir said one intelligence official and one civilian had been killed and up to 36 were wounded, most of them civilians.
"Some of the wounded are in critical condition and the death toll may rise," Zahir told Reuters.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location that the militant group had carried out the attack.
Reuters television footage showed the wreckage of a bus that had been destroyed in the blast, as Afghan soldiers stood guard around the scene of the attack.
Sayed Khalil, a nearby shopkeeper whose windows were shattered, said he had heard a loud explosion.
"I heard a huge bang and hid under my chair. After a few minutes, I rushed out to see what had happened and I saw two motorbikes on fire and two wounded people near the site. When I arrived, they were alive and breathing," he said.
"INHUMANE"
The attack came as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden wrapped up a visit to Afghanistan, where he said on Wednesday the Taliban's momentum has been "largely arrested", echoing findings of a war review released by U.S. President Barack Obama last month.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned Wednesday's bomb attack as "inhumane and un-Islamic".
Violence has surged in Afghanistan with record casualties on all sides of the conflict and a recent string of attacks around the country has challenged the view that winter brings a lull.
Military commanders now speak less of fighting "seasons" and say they aim to pressure militants throughout the year. Insurgents have also vowed to continue fighting, and foreign commanders acknowledge militant attacks are up on a year ago.
Last month two militants wearing suicide vests attacked a bus of Afghan army officers in Kabul, killing five and wounding nine. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that assault, the first major attack in the Afghan capital since May, when six foreign troops were killed by a large suicide car bomb.
Then last week a bomb in a bag in downtown Kabul killed a policeman and wounded two civilians.
On Friday, a suicide bomber killed 17 people, including a police commander, inside a Spin Boldak public bathhouse in southern Kandahar province, Afghanistan's worst attack in more than five months. [ID:nSGE706060]
On Monday another suicide bomber in Spin Boldak killed two policemen and one civilian.
Last year a record 711 foreign troops were killed, according to monitoring website www.iCasualties.com, up from 521 in 2009.
Afghan security forces have been hit even harder than foreign troops. A total of 1,292 Afghan police and 821 Afghan soldiers were killed in 2010, according to the Afghan government.
Ordinary Afghans, however, have borne the brunt of the fighting as they become caught up in the crossfire. The United Nations has said 2,412 civilians were killed and 3,803 wounded in the first ten months of last year, a 20 percent increase on 2009. (Writing by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jonathon Burch and Alex Richardson) (If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)
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