Local media, citing the provincial police chief, said 25 people were killed and another 10 were wounded, all of them civilians, including women and children.
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The attack took place close to a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city of Khost where several cars had been stopped, Khost police chief Faizullah Ghairat said. Seven CIA American officials were killed in the deadliest assault on the USA agency since 1983, when eight officers died in an attack on a military base in Beirut.
It wasn’t immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation previously said an “explosion” happened in Khost province, without elaborating.
The Afghan government has warned the Islamic State group, rooted in Iraq and Syria, is making inroads into Afghanistan and is active in at least three provinces.
On Tuesday, Afghan officials said another USA airstrike in Nangarhar province killed the second-highest official in the local Islamic State affiliate, Gul Zaman, and six others, including a ex- Pakistani Taliban spokesman.
In 2009, Camp Chapman was the target of a spectacular suicide attack claimed by Al-Qaeda. Many members of the Afghanistan Taliban are hiding in nearby Pakistan.
At least 12 Afghan civilians have been killed in two separate roadside bomb explosions in the country’s east and north.
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Roadside bombs have been the Taliban’s weapon of choice in their war against foreign and Afghan security forces, now in its 14th year.
