Eight militants were killed in a gunbattle after a suicide car bombing today at the entrance to an airport outside the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, airport authorities said.
After the car bombing, a group of militants, using light weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, battled international forces for 30 minutes, according to information provided by the media office at the airport.
The Taliban claimed responsibility.Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said six suicide attackers killed 32 foreign and Afghan security forces at the airport, about 125 km (78 miles) east of the Afghan capital.
The militant group frequently exaggerates its claims.
Ghafor Khan, a spokesman for the provincial police chief in Nangarhar province, said that during the fighting, international forces blocked access to the area and helicopters patrolled overhead. The airport is situated on a main road on the outskirts of the city that leads to the Pakistani border.
Nato said there had been an incident at the airport, but said it could not immediately provide details.
Elsewhere in the east, US and Afghan forces battled hundreds of militants from an al-Qaeda-linked group for a third day in Kunar province, the US military said. Two US soldiers were killed on Sunday in the first day of the operation.
The attack in Kunar was directed against insurgents believed responsible for the roadside bombing that killed five American service members in the area on June 7th, a US statement said.
The militants were believed to be members of the Haqqani group, a faction of the Taliban based in Pakistan that has close ties to al-Qaida. About 600 US and Afghan troops are taking part in the operation, the US statement said.
The attack came shortly after US general David Petraeus, who is expected to lead US forces in Afghanistan, played down hopes for a swift turnaround after nine years of war and said he would consider tactical changes in the face of escalating violence.
His nomination cleared a key Senate committee in a unanimous vote that showed bipartisan support for President Barack Obama's new pick to command the war.
Mr Obama sacked the last commander, General Stanley McChrystal, for disparaging civilian leaders in a magazine interview.
Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen Petraeus (57), promised greater civilian-military unity of effort to counter what he called an "industrial strength insurgency."
He planned to reassess restrictive rules of engagement that critics say put US units at unnecessary risk in an attempt to limit fallout on Afghan civilians. Gen Petraeus told the committee that broader changes were also possible depending on a White House review of war strategy in December.
Yesterday in Kabul, an Afghan man working for the United Nations was shot and killed in his vehicle near a busy traffic circle. He was driving a white pickup truck with the blue UN logo painted on the side. Another Afghan member of the UN staff, who was in the vehicle, was not wounded, the UN said.
Agencies