KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S. and Afghan troops repelled attackers wearing American uniforms and suicide vests in a pair of simultaneous assaults before dawn Saturday on NATO bases near the Pakistani border, including one where seven CIA employees died in a suicide attack last year.

The raids appear part of an insurgent strategy to step up attacks in widely scattered parts of the country as the U.S. focuses its resources on the battle around the Taliban’s southern birthplace of Kandahar.

Also Saturday, nearly 50 female pupils and teachers were rushed to the hospital after an apparent toxic gas attack at a Kabul high school, the government said. It was the second case of poisoning at a girls’ school in the capital this week. Officials suspect the Taliban, who oppose female education.

The militant assault in the border province of Khost began about 4 a.m. when dozens of insurgents stormed Forward Operating Base Salerno and nearby Camp Chapman with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, according to NATO and Afghan police.

Two attackers managed to breach the wire protecting Salerno but were killed before they could advance far onto the base, NATO said. Twenty-one attackers were killed — 15 at Salerno and six at Chapman – and five were captured, it said.

Three more insurgents, including a commander, were killed in an airstrike as they fled the area, NATO said.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said two Afghan soldiers were killed and three wounded in the fighting. Four U.S. troops were wounded, NATO officials said.

U.S. and Afghan officials blamed the attack on the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida. Camp Chapman was the scene of the Dec. 30 suicide attack that killed the seven CIA employees.

Afghan police said about 50 insurgents took part in the twin assaults. After being driven away from the bases, the insurgents approached the nearby offices of the governor and provincial police headquarters but were also scattered, said Khost provincial police Chief Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai.

"Given the size of the enemy’s force, this could have been a major catastrophe for Khost. Luckily we prevented it," he said.

Small-arms fire continued through the morning, while NATO helicopters patrolled overhead. The dead were wearing U.S. Army uniforms, which can be easily purchased in shops in Kabul and other cities, possibly pilfered from military warehouses.

The twin attacks appeared to be part of a growing pattern of insurgent assaults far from the southern battlefields of Kandahar and Helmand provinces, which have been the main focus of the U.S. military campaign. Last December, President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan, most to the Kandahar area where the Islamist movement was organized in the mid-1990s.

Late Friday, insurgents stormed a police checkpoint in Takhar province near the northern border with Tajikistan. The Interior Ministry said nine insurgents were killed and 12 wounded with no losses on the government side. The day before, Taliban fighters killed eight Afghan policemen in a raid on a checkpoint outside the northern city of Kunduz.

And on Wednesday, an Afghan police driver with family links to the Taliban killed three Spaniards — two police trainers and their interpreter — at a training center in the northern province of Badghis.

Although the Afghan capital is relatively secure, incidents apparently directed at female students have raised concern about Taliban intimidation within the city.

The Health Ministry said 48 pupils and teachers at the Zabihullah Esmati High School were rushed to hospitals after falling ill with breathing problems and nausea. All but nine were treated and released after blood samples were taken to try to determine the cause.

On Wednesday, dozens of students and teachers at another Kabul girls’ school became sick when an unknown gas spread through classrooms, education officials said. The cause of that incident has not been determined, but officials fear the apparent poisonings could be part of an insurgent campaign to frighten girls from attending school.

Also Saturday, the government criticized U.S. media reports that alleged numerous Afghan officials had received payments from the CIA. A presidential office statement did not address or deny any specific allegations, but called the reports an insult to the government and an attempt to defame people within it.

The New York Times reported Thursday that the CIA had been paying Mohammed Zia Salehi, the chief of administration for Afghanistan’s National Security Council, who was arrested last month as part of an investigation into corruption. The Washington Post reported the next day the agency was making payments to a large number of officials in President Hamid Karzai’s administration.

"Afghanistan believes that making such allegations will not strengthen the alliance against terrorism and will not strengthen an Afghanistan based on the law and rules, but will have negative effects in those areas," the statement by Karzai’s office said, without commenting on the substance of the reports.

"We strongly condemn such irresponsible allegations which just create doubt and defame responsible people of this country," it said.

Meanwhile, NATO issued a statement saying coalition helicopter pilots were not responsible for the deaths of three Afghan policemen killed Aug. 20 in what had been considered a friendly fire incident in Jowzjan province’s Darzab district.

It said the helicopters showed up hours after fighting began and it was possible the three had been killed earlier.

All Afghan forces had also been ordered to remain inside compounds at the time the two helicopters fired a missile and 80 30-millimeter rounds at an insurgent firing position, NATO said.

KABUL, Afghanistan – A roadside bomb tore through a crowded market in Afghanistan’s increasingly volatile north, killing three policemen and two civilians, a police official said Friday.

Another 15 civilians were wounded in Thursday evening’s bombing in Kunduz province’s Archi town. The blast went off as residents were shopping for foods ahead of breaking the dawn-to-dusk fast observed during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but deputy provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Aqtash said civilians appear to have been the target.

"This was a cruel act of the enemy. There was nothing to link these people to the coalition or to politics," Aqtash said.

Kunduz, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, has not traditionally been a stronghold of the Taliban, who enjoy their greatest support among ethnic Pashtuns in the country’s southern and eastern provinces.

However, insurgents have been steadily building their presence there since about 2007, mostly among Pashtuns who are a minority in the area. Attacks on a key coalition supply line running south from Tajikistan are a constant menace, along with ambushes of German forces who help provide security.

In establishing a northern foothold, Afghan authorities believe the Taliban use veterans from southern battlefields to help organize local groups, sometimes with help from the al-Qaida-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which provides recruits from among the Uzbek minority.

"The situation is very bad and dangerous in Kunduz but unfortunately the security officials keep saying things are all right," Mabubullah Mabub, chairman of the Kunduz provincial council, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "Over the last two years, the situation has been getting worse."

Farther east in Badakhshan province, Afghan army commandos aided by U.S. special forces discovered a major weapons cache in the remote village of Nawci on Wednesday, NATO reported. It said weapons found included 78 rockets with launchers, 47 mortar rounds, more than 9,000 rounds of ammunition, and 24 rocket propelled grenades. All were destroyed.

The town is believed to be safe haven for Taliban fighters and drug smugglers, as well as a conduit for foreign fighters arriving from neighboring Pakistan, NATO said.

Following the release of classified American military documents by WikiLeaks, Afghan officials have become more outspoken in urging the United States to put more pressure on Pakistan to shut down terror sanctuaries on its side of the border.

President Hamid Karzai on Thursday told a visiting U.S. Congressional delegation that the war against terrorists cannot succeed as long as the Taliban and their allies maintain sanctuaries in Pakistan.

A statement by Karzai’s office said the Afghan leader told the U.S. delegation that significant progress had been made in rebuilding the country after decades of war. But he said the campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaida had faltered because of ongoing civilian casualties during NATO military operations and a lack of focus on "destroying the terrorists’ refuge" across the border.

Karzai also said President Barack Obama’s announcement that he would begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan in July 2011 has given "the enemy a morale boost" because they believe they can simply hold out until the Americans leave.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Five NATO soldiers were killed in southern and eastern Afghanistan amid reports of new fighting in Nuristan, a remote northeastern province of Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

Four of the soldiers, including two British servicemen, were killed in southern Afghanistan. The fifth was killed in the eastern part of the country. All of the fatalities were caused by homemade bombs that exploded while the soldiers were on patrol. Bombs and small-arms fire are the main causes of death in Afghanistan. So far this year 57 percent of all deaths have been caused by improvised explosive devices, according to icasualties.org, a Web site that tracks military casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 The Americans and the British have focused their increased forces on southern Afghanistan this summer in an effort to improve local governments and set the stage for a military campaign in the fall.

In response, insurgents appear to be testing defenses elsewhere in the country. Several times over the past six weeks, residents in the remote Barg-e-Matal district of Nuristan Province have reported large numbers of Pakistani Taliban fighters crossing the border and attacking the district center.

 “We are getting fires from southeast, northwest, and other directions,” Maulavi Qahir, the district governor of Barg-e-Matal, said in a telephone interview on Saturday. Shooting could be heard in the background.

“We have only 190 Afghan Border Police and Afghan National Police in the district center and in our check-posts,” Mr. Qahir said. “There are no American or Afghan commandos in the district center. They all left the district center last month.”

About two dozen American Special Operations commandos as well as Afghan soldiers were patrolling in Barg-e-Matal after a cross-border attack in late May. Since then there have been reports of renewed fighting, but the American military has been reluctant to send troops to the sparsely populated area when there are many other demands on American forces, said officers familiar with the situation.

On Saturday, the American military said drones with cameras sent to survey the area had not detected any significant insurgent activity.

But military officials did not rule out the possibility of scattered fighting, perhaps between local factions.

In one of the deadliest 24-hour periods in weeks, 8 U.S. soldiers were killed in three separate attacks while the Taliban kidnapped 5 Afghan health ministry employees, all events occurring in southern Afghanistan. 

 3 U.S. troops died when an insurgent rammed an explosive-laden automobile into the main gate of an elite Afghan police compound in Kandahar, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban, as other militants unleashed automatic fire. An Afghan police officer and five Afghan civilian workers were also killed in the brazen attack. Four other U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb and a fifth died during a small-arms firefight. These most recent deaths brings the tally of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year to 238, compared with 317 for all of last year. So far in July, 45 coalition troops have died in Afghanistan, 33 of them Americans, following the previous month’s trend, which was the deadliest for NATO-led force, with 103 ISAF soldiers killed. Also in Kandahar, Haji Khalifa a pro-government cleric, who is also a member of the Pajawai district shura, was gunned down in a mosque while he was praying on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, just a few hours ago five health ministry employees were kidnapped from Kandahar as well, according to Provincial spokesman Zulmi Ayubi. Gunmen stopped a medical team’s car that was en route to Kandahar from Maiwand district and abducted two doctors, a pharmacist, a nurse and their driver. The Taliban have intensified a campaign of assassinations and kidnappings of government workers and tribal leaders recently in a backlash against the increased presence of international forces in Kandahar. Insurgents are trying to intimidate and make the point they can still operate despite the extra security. Army Brig. Gen. Ben Hodges, a top U.S. commander in southern Afghanistan, said security will improve in coming months as additional American and Afghan forces move into unstable areas, saying: 
“It’s a rising tide. And that tide is starting to come in now. We’re going to start feeling those positive effects here as July turns into August."

In the contested district of Zhari, where the government has far less control than in Kandahar city, Hodges said combat operations will not begin until the Afghans are ready to take the lead in governing. He said U.S. forces could easily clear these areas but doing so without establishing local governance and permanent security forces would make it a fruitless exercise. Hodges has learned from NATO’s experience in neighboring Helmand that it is easier to win a military battle than it is to subsequently implement effective governance.
 

Five more US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, sending Nato’s death toll to 12 in 24 hours. Four soldiers belonging to the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan, Nato said. Another US soldier died in a separate attack also in the south of the country.

It comes a day after three US soldiers and five Afghan civilians died in a suicide attack in Kandahar province.The latest deaths came as a major manhunt was under way in Helmand province for the rogue Afghan soldier who killed three British soldiers from the Royal Gurkha Rifles on Tuesday.  A British Royal Marine was also killed on Tuesday in a separate incident in Helmand province. So far in July, 45 international troops have died in Afghanistan, 33 of them from the US. June saw more than 100 international troops killed – the bloodiest month of the nine-year-old war.

"We are in the toughest part of this fight," Isaf spokesman Brig Gen Josef Blotz told reporters. Late on Tuesday a suicide bomber detonated explosives at the gate of the headquarters of an elite Afghan police unit in Kandahar. Minutes later, insurgents opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Three US soldiers, an Afghan policeman and five civilians died in the attack. Isaf said that Afghan police backed by international forces fought back "and prevented insurgents from penetrating the compound perimeter". The Taliban later admitted they were behind the attack. Insurgents have stepped up attacks on government targets in Kandahar – the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban – as US reinforcements are poised for an expected Nato offensive in the city. The three British soldiers who died on Tuesday were serving with 1st Battalion, The Royal Gurkha Rifles, in Nahr-e Saraj.

Nato said it was using every "asset" within its power to find the Afghan soldier responsible and those who may be helping him. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has vowed a full investigation into the shooting. One of the three was shot and the other two were killed by a rocket-propelled grenade. On Wednesday, Afghan army spokesman Gen Ghulam Farook Parwani identified the rogue soldier as Talib Hussein, from the minority Hazara community which is usually opposed to the Taliban. He said the man’s motive was still unclear. Nato soldiers are increasingly fighting alongside their Afghan counterparts as the West tries to transfer responsibility for security ahead of a gradual withdrawal starting next year. The Afghan interior ministry said another nine civilians were killed in Helmand province on Tuesday when the minivan they were travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb. Bombs, known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), are a common weapon of the Taliban.

Three British soldiers have been killed and four injured by a renegade Afghan soldier in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said. The men, from 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, were on duty on Tuesday morning in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand province, when the Afghan opened fire. One is believed to be a Nepalese Gurkha and the other two were UK nationals. Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the "appalling" killings, but said UK and Afghan troops should work together. 

The Taliban has claimed the Afghan soldier had joined its insurgency. An investigation is under way and next of kin have been informed. Meanwhile, in a separate incident a Royal Marine from 40 Commando was killed in Helmand, the MoD said. Family have been told. He was shot dead on Tuesday while on foot patrol in the Sangin district. The number of British military personnel killed on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 now stands at 318. Mr Cameron said the current strategy of working alongside local security forces should go on. 
"It is absolutely essential that we don’t let this terrible incident change our strategy. It is the right thing to do to build up the Afghan national army," he said.

He went on: "We need to make sure that we build up that army because that, in the end, is the way that we are going to be able to bring our troops back home." Similarly, Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: "Training and developing the Afghan National Security Forces is vital to the international mission in Afghanistan and today’s events will not undermine the real progress we continue to make. British and Isaf forces are working shoulder to shoulder with Afghans and will continue to do so undeterred."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has apologised to the UK after the incident and a defence ministry spokesman said a soldier from the Afghan National Army (ANA) was being sought. Mr Cameron said he spoke to President Karzai on Tuesday morning and both men agreed that an urgent investigation was required. President Karzai’s spokesman, Waheed Omar, said the Afghanistan government was also investigating the killings and the government would "do everything to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice". One of the soldiers killed was shot and the other two were killed by a rocket-propelled grenade. 

The spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Lt Col James Carr-Smith, said: "We believe these were the actions of a lone individual who has betrayed his Isaf and Afghan comrades.  "His whereabouts are currently unknown but we are making strenuous efforts to find him. He should know that his actions will not deter us from our task and we will continue to work closely with our Afghan friends to bring security to Helmand." "Three courageous and dedicated soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice. They will be greatly missed and their actions will not be forgotten. We will remember them." British soldiers in Afghanistan have trained 130,000 Afghan troops since 2006, and 5,000 British troops are currently partnering members of the ANA.  It appears to be the third incident in which a member of the Afghan security forces has opened fire on British troops. There was one incident in 2008 when two British soldiers were shot in the leg, and another in November 2009 when five British soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan policeman. Security correspondent Frank Gardner said he was not surprised that the attack had happened because the vetting process to join the Afghan military is poor. It is not a popular career move, he said, because it is poorly paid and dangerous. 
"It is important to keep an open mind about what has motivated this person," said our correspondent.
"This kind of thing often has rather more below the surface. There are often tribal feuds, there are family feuds; there are personal reasons. So it isn’t always down to the insurgency." 

Our correspondent added that the tragedy was likely to intensify debate over the human costs of the mission in Afghanistan, but he said the West’s exit strategy relies on training the Afghan security forces. The Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, said: "This is a combined joint mission – Afghan and Alliance troopers fighting shoulder to shoulder against the Taliban and other extremists. "We have sacrificed greatly together and we must ensure the trust between our forces remains solid in order to defeat our common enemies." And Col Richard Kemp, a former commander of British troops in Afghanistan, told it was important to remember that this was an isolated incident and "not a pattern of events".

Three British soldiers have been killed by an Afghan soldier in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said the incident was believed to have been deliberate. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has apologised to the UK after the incident which took place in the Nahr-e Saraj district on Tuesday.

An investigation is under way and no further details have been released – next of kin are being informed. There is a helpline number in the UK for concerned relatives – 08457 800900. It is understood there will not be any confirmation of the circumstances surrounding the incident until the next of kin are informed. An Afghan defence ministry spokesman said the attack was carried out with a rocket-propelled grenade, and that four other British soldiers were also injured in the attack.  He said an Afghan soldier was being sought following the incident.

Five Afghan soldiers have accidentally been killed in a Nato airstrike, officials in Afghanistan have said. A spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry condemned the incident, saying it was not the first time Afghan soldiers had died in “friendly fire”. Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the soldiers had been launching an attack against insurgents in Ghazni province in eastern Afghanistan.Nato confirmed the airstrike had gone wrong and said it regretted the deaths.

Spokesman Brig-Gen Josef Blotz said a joint investigation had been launched. A statement released by the the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said that the inquiry would determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the deaths, which occurred when “an Isaf aircrew engaged the individuals with precision-guided munitions”.
“This loss of life is tragic, and we offer condolences to all those who lost loved ones,” said Isaf spokesperson Jane Campbell.
“We work extremely hard to co-ordinate and synchronize our operations, and we deeply regret the loss of lives from our Afghan partners.”

Five US soldiers have been killed in separate incidents of violence in Afghanistan, Nato has said. Three died in east Afghanistan and two were killed in separate roadside bombings in the south. A sixth American died in an accidental explosion. More than 350 Nato soldiers have been killed this year. In other violence, gunmen killed 11 Pakistani Shia tribesmen in the east and one person was killed by a motorbike bomb in Kandahar. Also on Saturday, hundreds of Afghans took to the streets of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in protest at increasing civilian deaths.