Militant attacks kill nine Nato troops

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KABUL, Jul 14 (AFP): Militants killed nine NATO

soldiers in an assault on a remote base in northeastern

Afghanistan, officials said, in one of the deadliest attacks on foreign forces fighting the Taliban insurgency.

The attack on the military outpost Sunday came as a suicide bomber targeted police in a busy bazaar in southern

Uruzgan province, killing 24 Afghans including children, police officials said.

In bloody carnage in several parts of Afghanistan, at least 40 insurgents were also killed in two days of fighting in southern Helmand province, the US-led coalition announced.

A tenth foreign soldier was also killed in a bomb blast in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan, the coalition said.

Militants launched an early morning attack on the NATO base, in mountainous Kunar province near the Pakistan border, which soldiers from NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had only recently occupied, the force said.

The rebels were beaten back after several hours and were believed to have suffered heavy casualties, it said in a statement.