About 25 people have been reported killed in a suicide auto bomb attack near a military base in Afghanistan’s Khost province, where Afghan and foreign soldiers are stationed, the authorities said.
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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.
Foreign troops including U.S. soldiers are stationed at Camp Chapman alongside Afghan soldiers.
The surge in attacks has taken a heavy toll on civilians, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan. It’s not clear whether the Central Intelligence Agency still operates out of Camp Chapman.
In 2010, 24 Taliban militants, some wearing U.S. uniforms, were killed when they tried to storm Camp Chapman and another nearby U.S. base, Camp Salerno.
The suicide bomber carried out his attack when many civilian vehicles were waiting to pass by on a main road, said an Afghan police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to discuss the attack.
Gen. Abdul Karim Fayeq, provincial police chief in Kapsia province, said on Sunday that at least seven other civilians were wounded after their van hit by a newly planted roadside bomb.
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The bombs also increasingly kill and wound civilians. It was the latest incident in a series of attacks believed to have orchestrated by the Taliban in a bid to destabilize the country’s government as US troops are scaling down their presence.
