12 people were killed on Tuesday as a female blew herself up a highway leading to Kabul international airport.

12 people were killed on Tuesday as a female blew herself up a highway leading to Kabul international airport.

"At around 6:45 am (0215 GMT) a suicide bomber using a sedan blew himself up along the airport road in District 15. As a result, nine workers of a foreign company and three Afghan civilians are dead, and two police are wounded," police said in a statement.

An Afghan and a Western security official said nine foreigners were killed.
"The foreigners were from a private company working at the airport," the Afghan official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told AFP the bomber blew himself up alongside a minivan, carrying foreigners.
Afghan group Hezb-i-Islami claimed responsibility for the blast, saying it was carried out by a woman to avenge the "Innocence of Muslims", an offensive film to Islam and Prophet Mohammad (pbuh).

The claim was made by spokesman Zubair Sidiqi in a telephone call to AFP from an undisclosed location. It is extremely rare for the faction to claim a suicide attack in Afghanistan. It is also rare for women to carry out suicide attacks.