Afghan and NATO officials say several Taliban fighters were killed today when they attacked a NATO-operated airport in eastern Afghanistan.
Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the provicial governor, said at least one attacker detonated a car bomb at the gate of the airport in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangahar Province, which borders Pakistan.
NATO said in a statement that combined Afghan and international forces repelled the attack. NATO said "several insurgents were killed."
A Defense Ministry spokesman, Zahir Azimi, said eight insurgents were killed in the attack, while one NATO and one Afghan soldier were injured.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, had said six Taliban suicide bombers stormed the fortified airport. The Taliban spokesman claimed that dozens of Afghan and foreign troops were killed, but Taliban casualty counts are seldom seen as reliable.
On June 29, U.S. General David Petraeus, the man chosen to take charge of the U.S. effort in Afghanistan, warned of increased violence in the coming months.
Petraeus told a Senate panel, which
backed his nomination to lead the war, "the going inevitably gets tougher before it gets easier."
compiled from agency reports