* Taliban claims responsibility for suicide attack in Kabul
* Attack targeted minibus carrying Afghan security forces
* Four foreign troops killed in two separate bombs
(Updates with another foreign service member killed by bomb)
By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed two people and wounded more than 35 people near the country's parliament in Kabul on Wednesday, officials said, the third bomb attack in the Afghan capital in less than a month.
Violence is at its worst since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the hardline Islamist Taliban in 2001 after they refused to hand over al Qaeda militants, including Osama bin Laden, after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
But attacks in the 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.
Three foreign soliders were also killed by a bomb in eastern Afghanistan, while a fourth was killed in a blast in the south, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. It gave no details.
The suicide bomber in Kabul attacked a minibus carrying Afghan intelligence personnel in a western district of the city near the country's parliament, said Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul's crime investigation unit.
Zahir said an intelligence official and a civilian had been killed and up to 36 people 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 his group had carried out the attack.
Reuters television footage showed the wreckage of the minibus as Afghan soldiers stood guard.
"I heard a huge bang and hid under my chair," said Sayed Khalil, a shopkeeper whose windows were shattered in the blast.
"After a few minutes, I rushed out to see what had happened and I saw two motorbikes on fire and two wounded people."
"INHUMANE"
The attack came a day after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Afghanistan where he said the Taliban's momentum has been "largely arrested", echoing findings of a strategy review 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 and a recent string of attacks around the country helping to dispel a belief 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 suicide bombers 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 capital since May, when six foreign soldiers were killed by a suicide car bomb.
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, in a public bathhouse in Spin Boldak town 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 a civilian. (Writing by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jonathon Burch and Robert Birsel) (If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)
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