JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- At least 11 people were killed when Taliban militants armed with suicide vests and weapons stormed an Afghan-NATO base in Jalalabad, the capital city of Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar, Sunday morning.
A total of 11 people including nine attackers and two civilians were killed in Sunday morning's attack in the joint base, local media Tolo News reported.
The attack began at around 6:00 a.m. local time when two suicide bombers hit their explosive-laden vehicles into separate entrances of the base, sparking a gunfight between the militants and security forces, the report said, citing unknown sources.
No casualty reports on Afghan and NATO forces were immediately available. However, it is said that at least one Afghan soldier was killed and several other foreign and Afghan soldiers were wounded in the incident in the city, some 120 km east of the Afghan capital Kabul.
NATO helicopters were hovering over the area and fired on the attackers, a witness told Xinhua, adding that the blasts caused a plume of grey smoke above the scene.
It was not known whether the attackers breach in the base which is the main base in eastern provinces.
Government troops immediately cordoned off the area shortly after the blasts.
Meantime, Taliban insurgents' spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Taliban, whose regime was toppled in a U.S.-led incursion in late 2001, have intensified activities since the militant group launched an annual rebel offensive against Afghan security forces and about 100,000 NATO-led troops stationed in the country from May 3 this year.
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