Explosion Reported in Kabul - NYTimes.com KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan defense ministry official said Saturday that a powerful car bomb had struck the western edge of the capital, Kabul, near the site of next week's meeting of elders to discuss a controversial security agreement with the United States. The official, Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi, said the target of Saturday's bomb was an Afghan National Army armored vehicle. He said one soldier was killed in an exposion that left the area in ruins. Eyewitnesses say they saw several bodies in the area. The explosion came just hours after President Hamid Karzai announced the final draft of the agreement had been completed. The soldiers were providing security at the site of next week's Loya Jirga, or grand council, convened by Karzai to debate an agreement that would allow American troops to remain in Afghanistan after the final withdrawal of international combat troops at the end of 2014.