ISIS claims responsibility for suicide blast that kills at least 16 in Afghanistan

ISIS has claimed responsibility for an attack that killed at least 16 people in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, the militant group's Amaq news agency said on Wednesday.

Militants set off a suicide blast on Wednesday morning and stormed a construction company near the airport in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, officials said Wednesday.

The dawn assault triggered an hours-long gunbattle with local guards, drawing in U.S. forces to assist the Afghan troops in the shootout.

Among those killed were employees of the Afghan construction company EBE and a military intelligence officer, said Attahullah Khogyani, the provincial governor's spokesperson. He said nine other people were wounded in the attack, which lasted more than five hours.

The Taliban and ISIS have been carrying out near-daily attacks across Afghanistan in recent years, mainly targeting the government and Afghan security forces and causing staggering casualties, including among civilians. The attacks have continued despite stepped-up U.S. efforts to find a negotiated resolution of the 17-year war, America's longest.

Wednesday's attack began around 5 a.m. local time and five attackers were involved, Khogyani said. Two of them detonated their explosives, blowing themselves up, while the remaining three were killed in the shooting.

The attackers were on foot and after setting off a suicide blast at the company gates, the others stormed in, triggering the gunbattle, according to Gen. Ghulam Sanayee Stanikzai, the provincial police chief.

"U.S. forces are supporting Afghan forces in securing the area now," Stanikzai later said.

As the attack unfolded, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrived for a visit to neighbouring Kunar province to inaugurate an administrative health complex and lay the cornerstone of a 200-bed hospital.

The attack was over by 10:30 a.m. when the last of the attackers was killed, and Afghan forces proceeded with a cleanup operation, Khogyani said. 

Over the weekend, the Taliban targeted an Afghan army unit at its camp in southern Helmand province, killing at least 23 troops and wounding more than 20 others. That attack began on Friday and ended 40 hours later.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Helmand attack, which came even as insurgents were meeting with a U.S. peace envoy in Qatar, a Gulf Arab country, for peace talks.