diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 7a4ac79..37ac38e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 *SVN*
 
-* Fix "function $A" declaration inside of a conditional (confuses IE). Fixes #10882. [Jacco, Andrew Dupont]
+* Test for attribute existence before applying more complex CSS3 selectors. Closes #10870. [arty, Tobie Langel]
+
+* Fix "function $A" declaration inside of a conditional (confuses IE). Closes #10882. [Jacco, Andrew Dupont]
 
 * Fixed selector parsing so that "#foo [bar=baz]" is treated the same way as "#foo *[bar=baz]". Closes #10734. [jlukas, kangax, Andrew Dupont]
 
diff --git a/src/selector.js b/src/selector.js
index fd7da25..65a52d8 100644
--- a/src/selector.js
+++ b/src/selector.js
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ Object.extend(Selector, {
 
     attr: function(element, matches) {
       var nodeValue = Element.readAttribute(element, matches[1]);
-      return Selector.operators[matches[2]](nodeValue, matches[3]);
+      return nodeValue && Selector.operators[matches[2]](nodeValue, matches[3]);
     }    
   },
   
diff --git a/test/unit/selector.html b/test/unit/selector.html
index 6939e77..6ccb819 100644
--- a/test/unit/selector.html
+++ b/test/unit/selector.html
@@ -245,6 +245,9 @@
       assert(!span.match('span span'), 'different ancestry');
       assert(!span.match('span > span'), 'different parent');
       assert(!span.match('span:nth-child(5)'), 'different pseudoclass');
+      
+      assert(!$('link_2').match('a[rel^=external]'));
+      assert($('link_1').match('a[rel^=external]'));
     }},
 
     testSelectorWithSpaceInAttributeValue: function() {with(this) {