Kabul: Two civilians were killed on Monday in a suicide attack at a gate to the US military base at Bagram north of the Afghan capital Kabul, an official said.
Taliban insurgents claimed the bombing, saying it was in revenge for the burning of Qurans at the base two weeks ago. "A suicide attacker came out of a truck and blew up his vest outside Bagram airfield (at a gate used by supply vehicles)," provincial governor Abdul Basir Salangi said.
"As a result, two people are killed and four wounded, all were civilians." He said no US troops were among the fatalities.
"The attack took place in retaliation for the Quran burning," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an SMS message.
The Quran burning in an incinerator pit two weeks ago ignited days of violent anti-US protests in which some 40 people died, plunging relations between foreign forces and their Afghan allies to an all-time low.
Last Monday a suicide car bombing claimed by the Taliban -- also in revenge for the Koran incident -- targeted NATO troops at an airport in eastern Afghanistan, killing nine people but no foreign soldiers. The US-led NATO force has 130,000 troops fighting the Taliban, who were toppled from power in a US-led invasion in 2001.
PTI