Afghan Taliban attack US base near Pakistan border: Officials

A series of explosions triggered by Taliban struck a joint US-Afghan base in eastern Afghanistan near Pakistan border on Monday morning.

Jalalabad: Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen
dressed as
Afghan police attacked a US base near the Pakistani border Monday,
sparking a
shootout that left all three assailants dead, officials said.

No
member of the US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan was killed in the
assault on
the base in Nangarhar province, said a spokesman for the International
Security
Assistance Force (ISAF).

"There
were a series of explosions that occurred in the vicinity of a forward
operating base in Nangarhar province," an ISAF spokesman told AFP.

The military later
described it as an "attempted but
unsuccessful coordinated attack by enemy forces".

"There were three enemy
forces killed during the attack.
We can confirm that no ISAF personnel were killed as a result of this
incident," it said in a statement.
An AFP
photographer saw the bodies of three dead attackers wearing Afghan
police
uniforms.

NATO combat troops are
gradually withdrawing from Afghanistan
and are due to finish their mission completely by the end of 2014, after
presidential elections next April.

Afghan officials said
today`s attack took place at Torkham,
which borders Pakistan and straddles a key NATO overland supply route
into
landlocked Afghanistan from the nearest sea port of Karachi.

Ahmad Zia Abdulzai,
Nangarhar governor`s spokesman, said
insurgents first attacked NATO supply trucks.

"Today morning, Taliban
insurgents attacked and burned
supply trucks delivering supplies to NATO which belonged to foreign
forces near
the US base in Torkham," he told AFP.

"Later, three armed suicide
bombers started gunfire and
clashes with Afghan forces and US forces, and they were killed after
three
hours of fighting.

"At the moment, the
stand-off is over, and the situation
is under control."
Zabihullah
Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban which is leading a 12-year
insurgency
against Western troops and the Afghan government, claimed responsibility
for
the attack in a statement sent to the media.

AFP