A suicide blast hit a flea market outside a joint US-Afghan military base in the east of the country today, officials said, killing at least two Afghan soldiers and wounding foreign and local forces.
Gulam Dastagir Rostumyar, deputy provincial police chief in Paktia said the blast tore through the bazaar in Gardez, the provincial capital.
"In a suicide attack on a flea market outside the military base, two Afghan National Army soldiers were killed and four were wounded," he said.
General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, an Afghan defence ministry spokesman, said at least five Afghan soldiers were injured.
A spokesman for American-led coalition forces in the area said: "A few of our soldiers were superficially wounded."
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.
