Five civilians including three schoolchildren were killed Monday when a suicide bomber targeted NATO forces in the eastern Afghanistan province of Laghman, officials said, dpa reported.
The bomber detonated his vest outside the office for governor of Qarghaee district as US soldiers were coming out, Faizullah Pathan, spokesman for the provincial governor, said.
"Five civilians with three of them school students were martyred in the attack," Pathan said, adding that two policemen and one civilian were injured.
Pathan did not say if there were any foreign troop casualties.
A spokesman for NATO-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed that there were casualties among their troops, but declined to provide further details.
No group immediately took responsibility for Monday's attack.
The attack came after at least two dozen fighters including suicide bombers attacked government buildings in the southern city of Kandahar on the weekend, sparking a battle that lasted 30 hours.
The Taliban announced a spring offensive at the beginning of this month and vowed to increase their attacks on Afghan and more than 140,000 US-led forces currently based in the country.
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