Suicide car bombing kills 3 soldiers in northern Afghanistan

Three Afghan soldiers and an assailant were killed and three soldiers wounded in a pre-dawn Taliban suicide car bombing in the country's northern province of Baghlan on Thursday, a local army source confirmed.

The assailant tried to carry out a car bombing against an army base in Bagh-e-Shamal locality of provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri city early Thursday, Abdul Hadi Nazari from the army's 217th Pamir Corps told Xinhua.

"When the soldiers manning the base opened fired, the vehicle exploded, resulting in the killing of the terrorist aboard the vehicle and martyrdom of three soldiers," he said.

The militants failed to cause massive damage to the base after the soldiers in the first gate of the camp responded to the attacker, he said.

The attack came as violence lingers in war-torn Afghanistan as the U.S. and NATO troops have been leaving the country.

About 3,500 U.S. forces and 7,000 NATO troops will withdraw from Afghanistan before Sept. 11, the day marking the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that drew the United States into war in the country. (ANI/Xinhua)

( With inputs from ANI )