Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says 14 Nepalese security guards have been killed by a Taliban suicide bomber who targeted their minibus in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said eight others were wounded in the early morning attack on June 20.

One wounded survivor of the attack told The Associated Press that his group provided security at the Canadian embassy in Kabul.

The group was leaving their residential compound on the main highway leading from Kabul to Jalalabad when the suicide attacker approached their vehicle on foot and detonated his explosives.

Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid said the suicide bomber appears to have studied the daily routine of the security guards and waited for their minibus to leave their compound when he carried out the attack shortly after dawn.

Afghan authorities said the minibus was owned by a foreign security company, but did not name the company.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the Taliban was responsible for the attack, saying on Twitter that the suicide bomber intentionally targeted “guards of foreign invaders."

The bombing follows a deadly suicide attack on April 19 that killed at least 64 people and wounded more than 340 in eastern Kabul on the same highway that leads from Kabul to Jalalabad.

It also follows coordinated attack on June 1 by a group of suicide bombers and gunmen who targeted a provincial court in the city of Ghazni.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for both of those attacks, saying they were taking revenge for the execution of six Taliban prisoners.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, and BBC