KABUL, Afghanistan - Militants attacked a remote U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan with rockets and heavy machine-guns, sparking a battle that left at least one Afghan injured, the American military said Wednesday.
At least a dozen guerrillas attacked the outpost early Tuesday morning at Nangalam, about 100 miles east of the capital Kabul, in Kunar province, military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said.
The attackers fired about 20 rockets then opened fire on the base, which houses about 100 U.S. Marines and special forces, but inflicted no casualties, Hilferty said.
U.S. forces responded with gunfire and called in an A-10 ground attack aircraft.
Hilferty said blood was found on trails leading into nearby hills, suggesting some of the attackers were wounded.
Hilferty said an Afghan man wounded in the crossfire was a civilian. Kunar Gov. Fazel Akbar said it was not clear if the man was a militant.
Akbar also said another Afghan man was killed in the exchange - information that the U.S. military could not confirm.
Kunar is the northernmost of a string of troubled Afghan provinces along the border with Pakistan where the 13,000-strong U.S.-led coalition is focusing its campaign against militants.
Remnants of the Taliban regime ousted by a U.S.-led assault in late 2001 are believed to have teamed up with remnants of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and fighters loyal to Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to fight the U.S.-backed government of Hamid Karzai.
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