The International Affairs Ministry says eight South African citizens were killed in a suicide bomb blast in Afghanistan.

Spokesman Nelson Kgwete told The Associated Press that the victims are believed to have been employed by a South African aviation company based at Rand Airport in Johannesburg.

A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a mini-bus carrying foreign aviation workers to the airport in Kabul early Tuesday, killing at least nine people in an attack that a militant group said was revenge for an anti-Islam film that ridicules the Prophet Muhammad.