Car Bomb in Afghanistan Leaves Civilians Dead - Wall Street Journal

At least 17 civilians, including women and children, are killed in attack near U.S. base in Khost province

KABUL—A suicide car bombing Sunday in eastern Afghanistan near a U.S. military base that once hosted CIA employees left at least 17 civilians dead, local officials said, the latest insurgent attack after foreign forces ended their combat mission there.

The bombing hit a checkpoint manned by members of the Khost Provincial Force, an Afghan unit that guards Camp Chapman for the U.S. forces there, said Youqib Khan, the deputy police chief in Khost province. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the bomber was trying to get onto the base or what led up to the attack, Mr. Khan said.

A local hospital received the bodies of at least 17 Afghan civilians, most of them women and children, said Dr. Hedayatullah Hamedi,Khost province’s health director. The blast also wounded six civilians, two of whom were in critical condition Sunday night, he said, and the death toll could rise.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast in the city of Khost, near Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan. Since U.S. and NATO troops ended their combat mission at the end of last year, local troops have taken the brunt of attacks by the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

“The explosion was so loud and strong that almost all of the city of Khost was shaken by the blast,” provincial police chief Gen. Faizullah Ghyrat said.

The suicide bomber carried out the attack when many civilian vehicles were waiting to pass by on a main road, an Afghan police officer said. The women and children killed and wounded in the attack were in vehicles waiting for their turn to pass, he said.

Foreign and Afghan forces blocked journalists and police from accessing the site after the blast. Pentagon officials referred comment to North Atlantic Treaty Organization authorities in Afghanistan.

“No U.S. or coalition personnel were injured as a result of the attack,” NATO said. It didn’t elaborate.

Camp Chapman, named after the first U.S. soldier killed in combat in the war in Afghanistan, sits near Forward Operating Base Salerno, a large Soviet-built airfield that was targeted by a Taliban truck bombing in June 2012. - Read More at Associated Press

Car Bomb in Afghanistan Leaves Civilians Dead