Bomb attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan

A suicide car bomber struck Tuesday near the home of a former Afghan vice president and a hotel frequented by Westerners, killing at least eight people and wounding nearly 40 in a neighborhood considered one of Kabul's safest.

A witness at the scene reported seeing a black four-wheel-drive vehicle near a barricade on the street.

NATO commanders fear more violence throughout the country following President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 reinforcements to try to reverse the tide against the Taliban.

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In a separate incident on the same day, a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in a market close to a politician's home in central Pakistan, killing 33 people and wounding 60.

Under heavy Western pressure, the Pakistani army launched an offensive against the Taliban's main stronghold of South Waziristan in October. The militants have retaliated with an onslaught of bombings that have killed more than 500 people, most of them civilians.

The attacker had packed the car with about 900 pounds (400 kilograms) of explosives, a senior police officer said.

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