The insurgent Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the car bombing in the capital, which also damaged vehicles carrying soldiers from the US-led military coalition helping Afghanistan defeat an extremist insurgency.

The blast, which happened during the morning rush hour, blew a big crater into the road, which was littered with pieces of mangled metal and shattered glass, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

"Three of our compatriots were martyred and two were wounded," a Kabul police chief, General Alishah Paktiawal, told reporters at the site.

Another policeman said earlier the dead included a truck driver and two youths.

"It was busy and all I heard was a big explosion," said Mir Khan, a road construction worker. "I came out and saw civilian vehicles rushing bloodied people away from the site."

Lieutenant Colonel Dave Johnson from the US-led coalition confirmed the attack and said it had damaged two vehicles, but the four occupants were not badly hurt.

"The four suffered no serious injuries. The vehicles were both disabled and are being evacuated," he told AFP. He could not immediately give the nationalities of the soldiers.

The Taliban have carried out a wave of such attacks in Afghanistan as part of a violent campaign to wrest back power from the fragile government of President Hamid Karzai, which is reliant on international military support.

The rebels suffered heavy casualties in the southwestern province of Farah on Wednesday, Afghan security commanders said.

Afghan forces and troops from NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) surrounded a compound where rebels had massed in Bala Buluk district, the army commander for western Afghanistan told AFP.

In initial fighting, two Afghan soldiers and a policeman were killed and several were wounded, said the commander, Jalandar Shah Behnam.

"Later, ISAF air planes bombed the fort and 30 Taliban including their ranking commanders were killed," he said. "There is no one left inside the fort."

The Farah deputy police chief, Mohammad Nabi Popal, also said 30 Taliban were killed as was one of his policemen.

"They were mostly Taliban from Helmand and some Pakistani Taliban who infiltrated our province from neighbouring Helmand," he said.

ISAF did not immediately comment.

It has been carrying out intense operations in restive Helmand province over the past weeks, saying the rebels had suffered significant losses, particularly in Garmser district on the border with Pakistan.

The district is said to be a Taliban gateway into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where extremists are said to have bases and training camps.

Popal said ISAF planes also bombed another area of Farah overnight after Taliban attacked police, wounding three of them.

"Heavy casualties were inflicted on the Taliban but we don't have a confirmed figure," he said, adding that "up to 15 may have been killed."

There has been a surge in violence in recent weeks, with a wave of Taliban attacks and major military operations against the insurgents.

On Wednesday two suicide bombings killed one person and wounded several others. Around a dozen policemen and a dozen civilians were killed in violence Tuesday -- one of the bloodiest days in weeks.

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