Suicide attack kills eight in Laghman

MEHTARLAM (PAN): Eight people were killed when a suicide attacker rammed his explosives-packed motorcycle into a gate of a district headquarters building in eastern Laghman province on Monday, officials said.

Several others, including foreign soldiers, were injured in the blast that took place in Qarghae district at 10:15am, the governor’s spokesman, Faizanullah Pathan, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The attack came moments after a meeting between Afghan and NATO) officials concluded in the compound, he said.

The attacker exploded his suicide vest at one of the district headquarters building’s gates as foreign troops came out, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

The dead included two policemen and six civilians, including three students, he said, adding three US soldiers were among several others wounded in the blast.

ISAF’s media office in Kabul confirmed that its two soldiers were wounded in the blast, but none of them was killed. “We have reports of a motorcycle borne suicide attack in Laghman province. There were some casualties, No ISAF servicemembers were killed, but two were wounded,” the force said in a statement.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the suicide attack that came days after six foreign and several Afghan soldiers were killed in a suicide attack targeting an Afghan army base in Gambiri desert area of the same district.

myn/ma

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