A suicide blast has killed at least nine people and wounded 13 at a police checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan.
Provincial officials said security personnel and civilians are among the victims of the attack Thursday in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province that borders Pakistan.
A police spokesman told VOA a senior police commander was among those killed.
The local branch of Islamic State, known as Khorasan Province (ISKP), claimed responsibility for plotting the attack.
ISKP militants have strong bases in parts of Nangarhar and neighboring Kunar province, and they routinely carry out attacks against pro-government security forces, as well as Afghan civilians.
Loyalists of the Middle Eastern terrorist group also have taken responsibly for recent bombings in the Afghan capital, Kabul, that killed dozens of people.
Additionally, Taliban insurgents are active in the area.
A top American general said Wednesday that Islamic State in Afghanistan remains a threat to the United States.
"They are very worrisome to us" in their strongholds in eastern Afghanistan, said Marine General Frank McKenzie, who heads the U.S. Central Command.
He told reporters in Germany that combat operations have failed to reduce the group's fighting ranks and the extremist group "in Afghanistan certainly has aspirations to attack the United States."
