Suicide attack targets NATO base in Afghanistan

A car bomb exploded on Monday outside the NATO base in Afghanistan, where seven CIA agents were killed last year, killing one person and injuring two others, police said.

The car bomber targeted NATO's Forward Operating Base Chapman in the eastern province of Khost, near the border with Pakistan's tribal belt, a known refuge of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

"One civilian was killed and two Afghans working with US forces were injured," Khost police chief Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai said.

The bomber detonated the explosives near a water-tanker that was entering the base, local government spokesman Mubariz Zadran said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the blast.

Seven CIA agents were killed in a suicide attack last year, when a Jordanian double agent who had been brought to the base after promising to share intelligence on Al-Qaeda, blew himself up.

That attack was the deadliest blow against the CIA since 1983.

Khost has suffered a deterioration in security in recent years despite a substantial US-funded reconstruction programme, part of a counter-insurgency strategy based on winning over the public and drying up support for the rebels.

Last week, a Taliban-style bomb killed 12 civilians, some of them women and children, in the province as they travelled home from a shopping trip.