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Taliban attacks NATO base in Afghanistan

JALALABAD: Taliban fighters launched a pre-dawn attack on a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, triggering a fire-fight with foreign and Afghan forces that left eight militants dead.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said its troops and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers stationed at Jalalabad airport came under attack, but that none of their forces were killed.

One of the attackers was wearing a suicide vest, ISAF said.

The Taliban, which often exaggerates details of its attacks, including foreign casualties, said that 14 suicide bombers were involved.

“They entered the airport. Some of them have blown themselves up. Some of them are still fighting,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid added several hours after explosions and firing was first heard in the vicinity. The hardline Islamist Taliban militia claimed responsibility for another brazen daylight attack on the Jalalabad air base in June, which saw a car bomb set off and rockets fired. Jalalabad has more than 2,500 military and civilian personnel and is one of NATO's largest bases in Afghanistan after Kandahar in the south and Bagram, north of Kabul. Kandahar and Bagram have also been targets for Taliban attacks in the past. — AFP

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