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Ammon News - By Al Arabiya With Agencies

Amid reported claims from the Afghan Taliban that the group had sent a suicide bomber in a vehicle to attack an American military base, an explosion hit the eastern Afghan city of Khost on Wednesday.

The blast killed at least three Afghans and wounding seven others, officials told AFP news agency.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told the agency the attack was a suicide car bombing and happened near the entrance of Camp Chapman base in Khost, close to the border with Pakistan.

The al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, widely regarded as the United States' most dangerous foe in Afghanistan, is active in Khost, which is on the Pakistani border.

Three years ago, an al Qaeda-linked Jordanian double-agent killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer in a suicide bombing at a U.S. base in Khost.

Earlier this month, a car bomb exploded outside of a compound housing a U.S. military contractor in the Afghan capital, blowing apart an exterior wall and wounding dozens inside, company representatives and police said.

Afghan authorities are scrambling to improve security across Afghanistan before the U.S. combat mission ends in 2014.