An Afghan security official stands guard at the scene of a car bombing near the US Bagram Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan, on Wednesday. Photo by Hedayatullah Amid/EPA-EFE
Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Armed attackers targeted a hospital under construction near the United States' largest military base in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one person and injuring dozens more, officials said.
The attack near the Bagram Airfield, which President Donald Trump had visited over Thanksgiving, was "quickly contained and repelled" by Afghan security and coalition forces, the NATO Resolute Support mission said a statement, "but the future of the medical facility was badly damaged."
No coalition or U.S. soldier was killed in the attack and the base remains secure, it said.
The two-hour attack, which has yet to be claimed, began when a vehicle loaded with explosives was detonated at the southern end of the base where the hospital was under construction, Parwan police chief Mohammad Mahfooz Alizada said, adding that after breaching the facility the attackers tried to enter the base.
Bagram district governor Abdul Shukur said one woman was killed at least 60 people were injured by the car bomb.
The attack comes days after the United States and the Taliban resumed peace talks that Trump had called off in September following a Taliban attack that killed 12 people including a U.S. soldier.
During his visit to the base late last month, Trump announced that he had reopened talks with the Taliban aimed at a peace deal.
In October, Trump reduced the number of troops in Afghanistan by about 2,000 from a force of approximately 13,000 soldiers who conduct counterterrorism operations and train, advise, and assist local forces.
