Afghanistan: A bomb went off outside a US military base in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, an Afghan military official said yesterday, in the first known attack on US forces in the north of the country.
No one was wounded in the Saturday night blast or in another bomb attack at almost the same time outside the office of the provincial governor in the city.
"The targets were obviously the governor's office and the American base," a military official said.
There were no injuries and the only damage was to part of the wall of the governor's office and the shattering of some nearby windows.
US-led forces in Afghanistan hunting the remnants of the former Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, have come under frequent though largely ineffective attack in the south and east of the country, which is dominated by members of the majority Pashtun ethnic group.
But there have been no known attacks until now on US forces in the north, which is dominated by members of the minority Tajik and Uzbek communities.
The official said an Afghan man had been detained in front of the governor's office immediately after the blast there.
The blasts came hours after US forces launched an operation in the east of the country to try and seal a remote section of the border with Pakistan to stop militants crossing.
Afghan authorities have blamed previous attacks on US forces on remnants of the Taliban, its al Qaeda allies and fighters loyal to renegade warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who opposes the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan.
The most deadly attack on foreign troops was on June 7th when four German peacekeepers were killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul.