KABUL - A suicide bomber dressed in a doctor's white coat slipped into a hospital compound in eastern Afghanistan, where he was challenged by police and NATO soldiers before detonating his explosives. Seven NATO troops and a hospital employee were injured, a local official said.
The suicide bomber was initially stopped by Afghan police as he entered the compound of the main government hospital in the city of Khost, where about 150 people had gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open an emergency ward.
The bomber ran off as he was being questioned, and NATO troops shot him several times before one soldier "wrestled him to the ground, restraining him long enough to allow the crowd of people to move safely away," a statement from the Western military alliance said.
That soldier was able to break free before the bomber detonated his explosive, and sustained only minor injuries, but two other wounded troops were evacuated to a NATO base for treatment, the statement said. The bomber died.
"The people were running everywhere and it was difficult at first to figure out what was happening," Cpl. Anthony Rush, who saw the attack, was quoted as saying in the statement.
The alliance gave no details on the troops' nationalities; Khost provincial Gov. Arsalah Jamal said they were American, and that one hospital employee also was wounded.
Most of the NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan are American.
The blast left a shallow crater in the earth a few yards behind the site of the ceremony and left shredded flesh hanging from the backs of guests' chairs.
Last year, Taliban-led militants launched about 140 suicide attacks, mostly targeting foreign and Afghan forces and officials of President Hamid Karzai's elected government -- part of a wave of violence that made 2006 the bloodiest year here since the ouster of the hardline regime in 2001.
In western Farah province on Tuesday, about 200 Afghan police and soldiers, backed by NATO, retook the remote town of Bakwa that was overrun by Taliban the previous day, provincial Gov. Muhajuddin Baluch said. They met no resistance as the militants had reportedly left the area soon after they staged their attack and police fled.
It was the second time this month that the government has lost control of a district in the region.
Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in nearby Helmand province on Feb. 1, defying a peace deal between the government and elders last year that capped weeks of fighting. The government is negotiating with elders to get them to persuade the militants to leave.
In southern Zabul province, NATO forces shot dead an Afghan civilian and wounded another who failed to stop their vehicle at a checkpoint on a main highway near the site of where a U.S. Chinook helicopter crashed at the weekend, the alliance said Tuesday.
Troops have destroyed the wreckage of the helicopter that crashed Sunday "to prevent possible exploitation of the site by terrorist groups," a U.S. military statement said. Eight U.S. troops died in the crash that happened after the helicopter reported engine failure.
Shootings of civilians by foreign forces, particularly at road checkpoints, have increased as Taliban-led militants have embraced the tactic of suicide bombings -- a comparative rarity just two or three years ago.
