A Taliban suicide car bomber targeting NATO troops at an airport in eastern Afghanistan killed nine people on Monday, the seventh day of violence over the burning of the Koran at a U.S. airbase.
The insurgents also said they were behind an attempt to poison foreign troops, as the death toll from unrest and protests that spread to even usually peaceful parts of the war-ravaged country hit about 40.
The U.N. announced that it was pulling its international staff out of their base in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz after it came under attack on Saturday by demonstrators protesting the burning of the Koran.
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The move came after NATO's International Security Assistance Force pulled all its staff out of Afghan ministries at the weekend when two U.S. advisors were shot dead in the Interior Ministry, apparently by an Afghan colleague.
Six civilians, an Afghan soldier and two local guards were killed in the bomb attack on the military base at Jalalabad airport, but NATO troops escaped unhurt.
The Taliban said it was revenge for the Koran burning.
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“The foreign forces have insulted our religion and this attack was revenge,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
The hardliners also claimed that an “Afghan cook” working on their behalf poisoned the food of NATO troops at another base in the same province of Nangarhar.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) launched an investigation after “traces of bleach” were found in fruit and coffee, a spokesman said