Thirty people dead in a suicide bombing on a bus in Kabul.

KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 28 Afghan troops and two civilians on Saturday in an attack on an army bus in Kabul, the Afghan president said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in the Afghan capital since the hard-line Islamist movement was ousted from power for harboring al Qaeda leaders following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

A suicide bomber dressed in army uniform got on the bus carrying Afghan National Army personnel to work, the Defense Ministry said. The blast split the bus into two and shattered shop windows in a central district of the capital.

Police and soldiers piled bodies onto army vehicles. Residents also helped pick up pieces of flesh and put them into plastic bags. A boy stood crying next to a police cordon saying he was looking for his father who sold cigarettes from a hand-cart next to the site of the bomb.