A suicide car bomber struck the NATO base outside of the city of Khost today. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The base was attacked at 1 pm local time in Afghanistan. The blast that occurred was enormous. Taliban says that it rammed a vehicle packed with large amounts of explosives into the base.

An Afghan police official who said that he had been at the scene of the attack, said that the blast was inside the compound. The blast collapsed a wall there according to reports.

The reports also say that insurgents entered the compound on foot after the blast wearing suicide attack vests and armed with heavy and light weapons. They report having destroyed an aircraft on the field as well.

A NATO Spokesman, Staff Sgt. Nicolas Morales says that 14 insurgents were killed in the attack on the compound. Reports also say that at least 6 civilians were killed and 30 wounded. NATO reports that the attack was at the first checkpoint outside of the base.

The Taliban is claiming that they killed a large number of “Foreign soldiers,” but, NATO is claiming that there were no ISAF casualties.

The summer offensive in that country has begun and the insurgents have stepped up their attacks in the area.

Camp Salerno, the camp that withstood the attack, is near the porous border with Pakistan. This area is very volatile dealing regularly with insurgents crossing over the border from tribal lands in Pakistan.

NATO forces are due to exit Afghanistan and turn over security to that country’s forces in 2014.