3 NATO troops killed in Afghan double suicide attack

Two insurgents wearing suicide vests blew themselves up near a group of foreign troops. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

ASAD ABAD: A double suicide attack killed three Nato soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Afghan and Western officials said.

Nato’s US-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said three of its troops died in an “insurgent attack” in the east but gave no further details in line with policy.

A Western military official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the three soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in Asad Abad, the capital of Kunar province.

The nationalities of the soldiers were not disclosed, but American troops provide the bulk of the Nato mission in Kunar, a flashpoint for Taliban and other militants on the Pakistani border.

Local police chief, Mohammad Aywaz Naziri, told AFP that two insurgents wearing suicide vests blew themselves up as a group of foreign troops walked to the nearby governor’s compound.

“This morning two suicide bombers targeted US soldiers who were walking from their base to the governor’s compound,” Naziri said. One Afghan was also killed in the blast, he added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but similar attacks in the past been claimed by the Taliban, leading a decade-long insurgency against the Kabul government and Nato troops.

The bulk of foreign combat troops are due to withdraw by the end of 2014 as part of plans to hand Afghan government forces responsibility for national security.