9 Taliban fighters, 1 NATO soldier killed in Afghanistan

Nine Taliban fighters and one member of the NATO-led international force were killed on Monday when insurgents attacked an army base in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

“Nine insurgents attacked a NATO military base in Zherai district,” said Javed Faisal, spokesman for Kandahar’s provincial governor.

“One of the assailants detonated a car suicide bomb at the entrance to open the way. But all of the others were gunned down by the NATO troops,” Faisal told dpa.

One of the NATO soldiers, “probably a U.S. national,” was killed by the car bomb, he said.

“We can confirm that one soldier was killed during a suicide attack in a NATO base in Kandahar province,” the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

Taliban claimed responsibility and said “scores of foreign troops were killed.” Their fighters had evaded security by wearing ISAF uniforms, insurgent spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said.