The BBC's Orla Guerin says the incident involved multiple
suicide attackers
Taliban suicide bombers have killed
four Afghan soldiers and wounded Nato troops in an attack on a joint US-Afghan
airbase in eastern Afghanistan.
A local police chief told the BBC that two civilians had been also killed in
the attack on the base in Jalalabad.
Afghan intelligence officials said nine suicide attackers had been involved
in the assault, and all had been killed.
Nato said the attackers had failed to penetrate the base. It is unclear how
many of its troops were injured.
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Orla Guerin BBC News,
Kabul
This was an ambitious co-ordinated assault involving explosive-laden vehicles
and suicide bombers on foot.
A Nato spokesman said the assault had clearly been planned for some time, but
both Nato and Afghan officials said it was a failure because the militants did
not penetrate the base.
But the fact that the Taliban managed to get as far as the perimeter will
raise questions, as there are checkpoints on the approach routes.
The attack has demonstrated, once again, that the militants retain the
capacity to strike, in spite of regular claims from Afghan and Nato officials
that they have been weakened.
The BBC's Orla Guerin in Kabul said the attack appeared
"co-ordinated and complex".
She added that this was not the first time the Taliban had targeted the air
base, which is used by US and Nato forces. In February Taliban killed nine
people in a similar attack.
Nato is gradually handing security over to Afghan forces ahead of the
departure of most combat troops in 2014.
Counter
claims
The Afghan officials said the first four attackers had arrived in
explosive-laden cars and targeted different entrances to the airfield early on
Sunday, Others who had followed on foot battled security guards.
The force of the explosions is reported to have blown out windows a kilometre
away.
Nato forces then responded with helicopters, and both Nato and Afghan
officials said the attackers had not managed to enter the base itself.
Local police told Reuters news agency that bodies in Afghan police and
military uniforms were scattered around the entrance to the base, but it was
unclear whether they were Taliban attackers in disguise.
In addition to the member of the Afghan security forces who was killed,
several Nato troops were wounded, a Nato spokesman said.
The Taliban later said they had carried out the attack.
The insurgents have been battling Nato and Afghan troops for 11 years and
still control parts of the east and south.
Nato - which currently has some 130,000 troops in Afghanistan - is due to
withdraw combat forces in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, with only training
troops remaining.
