Taliban attack major NATO base in Afghanistan

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Central Insurance Company Limited Chairman Md Shafi handing over a fire insurance claim cheque for Tk 4.78 million to Shaker Ahmed, director of Islam Group of Industries, at a function in the city recently. Central Insurance Chief Adviser Azizul Haque Cho

KABUL, June 30 (AFP): Gunmen set off a car bomb and fired rocket propelled grenades at one of the biggest NATO bases in Afghanistan on Wednesday in a brazen daylight attack claimed by the hardline Islamist Taliban.
Several assailants were killed during the strike on the Jalalabad air base in eastern Afghanistan, and two service personnel were injured, according to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
"Jalalabad airfield is under attack," ISAF spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Iain Baxter told AFP as the battle was under way.
The assault came just days before US General David Petraeus is due to take up his post as NATO commander in Afghanistan after he warned of a "tough fight" ahead in the nearly nine-year conflict.
Concerns about the progress of the war against the hardline Islamist Taliban have mounted following the dramatic sacking of Petreaus's predecessor, US General Stanley McChrystal, and an increasing death toll among foreign troops.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed the attack -- the latest strike to hit NATO bases in Afghanistan in recent weeks -- in a telephone call to AFP.
"Afghan and ISAF forces repelled a number of insurgents when they attacked Jalalabad airfield this morning using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, rocket-propelled grenades, and small arms fire," an ISAF statement said, adding that the assailants did not breach the base perimeter.
Several insurgents were killed, it said, without disclosing how or how many, adding that two members of the security force were injured. Their nationalities were not given.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government Wednesday rejected as 'unjust' allegations by a senior US lawmaker that international aid money is being embezzled on a massive scale by officials.
On Monday US lawmaker Nita Lowey, head of the powerful committee in charge of the budget, blocked billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan, vowing not to give "one more dime" until Kabul acts against corruption.