Suicide bomber targets NATO convoy in Nangahar

A suicide car bomber targeted a NATO convoy in eastern Afghanistan Friday, killing at least three civilians and wounding four others.

Hazrat Hussain Mashriqwal, provincial police spokesman confirmed the incident, saying the attack happened outside the gates of the base, as a convoy was returning from an early patrol.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the convoy attack, which took place near the U.S. military base not far from the airport in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province.

“In the morning today a foreign forces convoy came under a suicide attack near the airport in Jalalabad city,” Mashriqiwal said.

He added that three civilians were killed and four others were wounded in the powerful explosion in Jalalabad, which is home to an important US military base.

Friday’s bombings come a day after 18 people were killed when Taliban insurgents mounted a six-hour gun and grenade siege on a courthouse in the usually tranquil northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

In a statement on Friday, President Ashraf Ghani “strongly condemned the group terrorist attack in which a number women and children were martyred and many others were wounded”.