Taliban militants attack major NATO base in Bagram

AFP - Seven Taliban militants were killed and at least five NATO personnel wounded in clashes at Bagram military base in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, NATO said.
  
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying 20 suicide bombers took part in the assault, which began overnight and came a day after eight international troops were killed in a series of attacks.
  

"Seven insurgents have been killed during an ongoing attack on Bagram that included rockets, small arms and grenades," NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.
  
"Five service members were wounded."
  
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban leadership, told AFP: "Twenty Taliban suicide bombers attacked the base in Bagram."
  
"Four suicide bombers activated their explosive belts and fighting is continuing at the base," Mujahid said.
  
Bagram, around 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Kabul, is a huge NATO airbase. International forces also have a prison at the site, opened following the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
  
The entrance to the base was hit by a double attack in March 2009, which wounded three civilians.
  
Wednesday's attack came after attacks on Tuesday left eight NATO soldiers dead. A suicide car bomb attack claimed by the Taliban killed at least 18 people, including six troops -- five US and one Canadian.
  
NATO said another two soldiers had been killed in the south of the country on Tuesday, one by an improvised explosive device, the weapon of choice for Taliban insurgents, and one by small arms fire.
  
At least 210 NATO soldiers, 130 of them from the United States, have died in the war so far this year. It has been the deadliest January to May period since a US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime.
  
Taliban militants, who are leading a nearly nine-year insurgency against the Afghan government and its foreign backers, have increased attacks over the past 12 months in Afghanistan's heavily-guarded capital, Kabul, but strikes on NATO military bases are much rarer.
  
The Taliban had promised a new nationwide campaign of attacks from May 10 targeting diplomats, members of the Afghan parliament, foreign contractors and the 130,000-strong international military force.
  
The United States and NATO allies are deploying thousands of extra troops in the war, with the overall number due to peak at 150,000 by August, part of a new strategy designed to beat back the Taliban.
  
Washington believes this "surge" can wrest back the initiative in key population centres and allow US forces to start withdrawing from the unpopular and costly conflict next year.