Kabul: Five NATO soldiers among nine killed in suicide attack

Taliban claim the suicide bomber was a sleeper agent in the Afghan army

"A meeting was going on between Afghan and foreign soldiers when the suicide bomber used this opportunity to carry out the attack," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in an email to reporters.


The Taliban claimed responsibility and said the bomber was a sleeper agent who joined the army a month ago.


Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen Muhammad Zahir Azimi said that the blast injured four Afghan soldiers and four translators. Azimi declined to comment on Mujahid s claim that the man had lived among Afghan soldiers for weeks.
NATO declined to release further information on the service members killed pending notification of their next of kin.