A powerful car bomb detonated in the Afghan capital on Thursday morning killed 12 people and injured another 84, a senior police officer told RIA Novosti.

The officer said a few police were injured in the suicide attack, which took place near the Indian Embassy and Afghan Interior Ministry in Kabul, but most of the victims were civilians.

Medics said some of the wounded taken to nearby hospitals were in serious condition and the death toll was expected to rise.

The blast was strong enough to be felt in the Russian Embassy compound on the other side of the city. The Indian Embassy was the site of the Afghan capital''s deadliest suicide attack, which killed more than 50 people in July 2008.

A shopping center was damaged in the explosion and many small shops were destroyed.

Violence has increased in Afghanistan in recent months as Taliban militants sought to disrupt August''s presidential elections.

U.S. President Barack Obama is reviewing a request from his top general in Afghanistan for as many as 40,000 additional troops to fight a counterinsurgency campaign against the militants.