Bagram explosion: Four killed in blast at US base in Afghanistan

The Taliban claims responsibility for the Bagram Airfield blast, saying a suicide attacker targeted American soldiers.

At least four people have been killed and about 14 wounded in an explosion at the biggest US military base in Afghanistan.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the Bagram Airfield blast, saying a suicide attacker targeted American soldiers during their morning exercise.

The bomber managed to get inside the facility and detonate explosives, inflicting "heavy casualties on US invaders", said a spokesman for the group, Zabihullah Mujahid.

He blew himself up near a dining area, according to Waheed Sediqi, who speaks for the governor of Parwan province where Bagram is located.

Reports said a man dressed as a labourer gained access to the heavily protected base before detonating a suicide vest.

So far, the nationalities of those killed has not been revealed.

The explosion, about



35 miles north of the capital Kabul, highlights a worsening security situation nearly two years after NATO formally ended its combat operations in Afghanistan.

The alliance said: "An explosive device was detonated on Bagram Airfield resulting in multiple casualties.

"Four people have died in the attack and approximately 14 have been wounded.

"Response teams at Bagram continue to treat the wounded and investigate the incident." 

The blast follows a suicide attack on the German consulate in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Thursday night which killed four people and wounded more than 100 others.

The Taliban said the truck bombing was in retaliation for airstrikes near the northern city of Kunduz last week which killed more than 30 civilians.

In December, a motorcycle-riding Taliban suicide bomber killed six US soldiers near the Bagram base, in one of the deadliest attacks on foreign troops in the country last year.