Two Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance of a Western private security company’s house in central Kabul yesterday, killing two drivers, Afghan police and witnesses said.

The attack came as President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said all international and domestic private security firms would be dissolved in a bid to transfer capacity to the weaker Afghan police and army.

Head of police criminal investigations in the Afghan capital said the two civilians killed were drivers for international security contractors Hart.

“There were two suicide bombers who detonated themselves at the entrance. Two drivers were killed and a security guard was injured,” police chief Sayed Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada told reporters.

A senior representative of the London-based company said there had been an incident in the vicinity of their villa, but had no details.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary confirmed the attack in the Taimani district north of Kabul, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.

Eyewitness Abdul Sami, a guard for Hart, said the suicide bombers had shot dead two drivers before approaching the house, and then kicked and shot at the gate, leaving a guard with a bullet wound in the leg.

“When they saw the door would not open they came from the other side, from the back of the building. There they detonated,” Mr Sami said.

American and British soldiers, as well as Afghan police, could be seen at the scene.

An AFP reporter saw three bodies riddled with bullets near the single-storey building, while a car was parked at the villa’s entrance, where the gates had been blown away.