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Officials: 12 Dead In Dual Suicide Attacks At NATO Base In Afghanistan

A security official looks at rubble of a building destroyed during a twin suicide bomb attack in Wardak province, Afghanistan, on Saturday.
Stringer/Afghanistan
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Reuters /Landov
A security official looks at rubble of a building destroyed during a twin suicide bomb attack in Wardak province, Afghanistan, on Saturday.

Update at 10:40 a.m. ET:

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson tells our Newscast unit the Taliban is claiming responsibility for both attacks, and that two U.S. soldiers are among the injured. One of the bombs exploded about 40 miles west of Kabul, on a road leading to a nearby U.S. military base. The deaths are numerous because there's a busy shopping center there. The other bomb went off near the district governor's compound.

Soraya reminds us the same U.S. base was attacked by insurgents last year on Sept. 11. Five Afghans died and 77 U.S. troops were hurt.

In a separate incident today, she reports two U.S. troops were killed by a mine in Ghanzi province.

Our initial post:

The Associated Press is reportingthat Afghan officials have said two suicide attackers blew themselves up near a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 12 people and wounding more than 50.

According to AP, a spokesman for the Wardak provincial governor said the dead include eight civilians and four Afghan police, but no NATO troops were killed.

"[Shahidullah Shadid] says one suicide bomber with a vest rigged with explosives blew himself up outside a compound housing the district governor's office, while another in a fuel tanker detonated his bomb on a road separating the compound from a NATO base."

There was no immediate NATO comment, the AP says.

We'll update this story as it develops.

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