the alliance said. NATO did not say exactly where the attack took place and it was not immediately clear whether the assailant was an Afghan soldier or a militant who had donned an army uniform to infiltrate NATO defenses. Previously, there have been cases of both. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that plans to hand over control of seven areas to Afghan soldiers in July remained on course, despite new insurgent attacks. Premier Silvio Berlusconi offered his "encouragement" to all Italian soldiers following Monday's attack, but a prominent member of Berlusconi's Freedom party, Margherita Bonniver, said the Herat attack should speed efforts to negotiate a pullout. "A political solution will have to be effective to permit the international contingent to make an agreed upon withdrawal in the briefest time possible," said Bonniver. One Afghan policeman and three civilians were killed in the explosions in Herat, said Raouf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the regional police commander. He said more than 20 people were wounded. One of those wounded in the strike on the military base was a man from Slovenia, La Russa said, without explaining if he worked on the base or was simply nearby. Gunfire followed the attack at the Italian base, but Ahmadi said it was from guards shooting out from the compound. Officials had earlier reported a gunbattle between militants and Italian soldiers. The area was calm by midday. The second explosion was about a mile from the base at an intersection packed with businesses and traffic. Ahmadi said most of the casualties were from the second blast but did not provide more details. A NATO spokesman confirmed the attack near the Italian base. British army Maj. Tim James said initial reports were of a car bomb that exploded outside without breaching the defense of the base. Gunfire was also reported. The NATO base in Herat houses an Italian provincial reconstruction team, a collection of military and sometimes civilian workers who are tasked with helping build up local government and infrastructure. In Kabul, NATO