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Attack on coalition base in Khost thwarted

Insurgents detonated an explosives-laden truck near the gate of a major American base in Eastern Afghanistan on Friday, kicking off a gun battle in which more than a dozen attackers were killed, U.S. military officials said.

The attackers made it inside the perimeter but no Afghan or U.S. troops were killed, though both U.S. and Afghan troops suffered minor injuries.

The U.S. military has not released the number of injuries or whether civilians were hurt.

The attack began around 1 p.m. at Camp Salerno just outside of Khost, the capital of Khost province. After the initial explosion insurgents, some wearing suicide vests, continued the attack but were repelled by U.S. and Afghan troops, said Maj. Paul Haverstick, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force’s Regional Command-East. At least two of the attackers detonated their vests and Haverstick said roughly 14 insurgents died in the attack.

“They tried a complex attack ... and it failed because of the quick reaction of the forces on the ground,” Haverstick said.

The Associated Press quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying that “tens” of foreign forces were killed and wounded and that a plane on an airstrip was destroyed, though the Taliban often exaggerates casualty claims.

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