KABUL, March 3: A truck packed with explosives rammed into an Afghan government compound in Khost on Monday, killing two labourers and injuring several Nato soldiers, police said.

The Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Four North Atlantic Treaty Organisation soldiers, providing security at the compound, which houses Afghan security forces, were evacuated from the scene of the attack, military spokesmen at the main US military base at Bagram told AFP.

The Khost police chief said two labourers were killed in the blast, which he described as “huge and dangerous”. “It was a car bomb.”

Three bombs have struck vehicles in the district, called both Yaqoobi and Sabari, since Tuesday, killing 11 civilians and wounding more than a dozen.

The defence ministry said more than 20 militants were killed or injured in an operation by Afghan and international forces in Helmand on Sunday.

A Canadian soldier serving with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force was killed in a bomb blast in Kandahar, the Canadian military said.

The fatality took to 21 the number of international soldiers killed since January.

Intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh dismissed a US assessment that the government was in charge of only a third of the country, saying just eight out of more than 360 provinces were outside of Kabul’s authority.

“In about five percent of Afghanistan we have absolutely no government control but the rest of the country is under government control,” he told reporters.

“There are some weaknesses and shortcomings but that is a different issue.”

About two per cent of the population lived in the areas of no control while another 18 per cent were in areas where security was unsatisfactory, Mr Saleh said.

“This means if they face problems, they do not have immediate access to police and security services,” he said.—AFP