<p>A suicide bomber on a motorbike struck a joint Afghan-NATO patrol in the town of Khost on Wednesday, killing 17 Afghans and causing coalition casualties, officials said.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The blast in the eastern town close to the border with Pakistan, where Taliban and other Islamist insurgents fighting US-led troops have strongholds, also wounded 37 people, hospital officials said.<br /><br />There was no immediate claim of responsibility but interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi blamed the “enemies of Afghanistan”, a phrase commonly used by Afghan officials to refer to the Taliban.<br /><br />The Taliban, leading a 10-year insurgency against President Hamid Karzai’s western-backed government, have begun the annual fighting season with a series of attacks which saw US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta admit that violence was rising.<br /><br />Sediqqi said the blast was aimed at a combined Afghan and coalition patrol passing through Khost.</p>
<p>A suicide bomber on a motorbike struck a joint Afghan-NATO patrol in the town of Khost on Wednesday, killing 17 Afghans and causing coalition casualties, officials said.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The blast in the eastern town close to the border with Pakistan, where Taliban and other Islamist insurgents fighting US-led troops have strongholds, also wounded 37 people, hospital officials said.<br /><br />There was no immediate claim of responsibility but interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi blamed the “enemies of Afghanistan”, a phrase commonly used by Afghan officials to refer to the Taliban.<br /><br />The Taliban, leading a 10-year insurgency against President Hamid Karzai’s western-backed government, have begun the annual fighting season with a series of attacks which saw US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta admit that violence was rising.<br /><br />Sediqqi said the blast was aimed at a combined Afghan and coalition patrol passing through Khost.</p>