JALALABAD (PAN): Nine people were killed and a dozen others wounded as a result of a suicide attack in eastern Nangarhar province on Monday, officials said.

The bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle  at the entereance to the Jalalabad airfield on the Torkham-Jalalabad highway, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the governor’s spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News. 

Six civilians, two Afghan gauards of the airbase and an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier were killed while two more ANA soldiers, a guard and nine ordinary people wounded in the blast, said the deputy police chief, Obaidullah Talwar.

Six dead bodies and four wounded people had been brought  to the Jalalabad Civil Hospital, Public Health Director Dr. Baz Mohammad Sherzad said, adding the injured were in stable condition.

As usual, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, with their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying dozens of US and Afghan soldiers were killed in the attack. The assault was in retaliation for the desecration of the Holy Quran by US troops, he said.

mrh/myn/mud