At least 18 people were killed Sunday in a suicide car bomb attack near a military base in Afghanistan's eastern province of Khost, where Afghan and foreign soldiers are stationed, authorities said.

The bomber detonated the explosives at a military roadblock near the entrance to the base, said Faizullah Ghairat, the Khost city police chief. "We counted 18 dead," said a doctor at a hospital in the city, which is not far from the Pakistani border.