A suicide attack outside a US military base in eastern Afghanistan killed nine Afghan civilians Monday, while NATO forces earlier killed four civilians with rockets in the south, officials said, according to dpa. In other incidents, a British soldier was killed in the south, and several militants were killed in separate clashes in southern and northern Afghanistan, the military said. A suicide bomber had detonated his explosives-laden vehicle outside a compound in the eastern Khost province, killing nine labourers who were standing in line for a security check to enter the US base, provincial Governor Arsala Jamal told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Jamal said 13 other labourers had been wounded in the attack, and police had shot and killed two would-be suicide bombers riding in another vehicle packed with explosives near the base. "The explosion did not penetrate the base's perimeter," a US military statement said. US forces assisted in taking the wounded to the base hospital, it said, without saying whether there were any US casualties.
