KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents attacked a convoy of Afghan and international troops Friday in eastern Afghanistan, sparking a gun battle that left about 30 militants dead, NATO said.
The joint Afghan-international force called for air support during the firefight in Shinwar district of Nangarhar province, the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan said. No other information was disclosed and it is unclear whether any Afghan or coalition forces were killed or wounded.
NATO forces in Afghanistan have concentrated on Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan in the past several years but more recently have shifted their focus to the east along the border with Pakistan.
In the south, a roadside bomb killed a NATO serviceman in Kandahar province, the same region where the U.S.-led alliance repelled a coordinated Taliban attack on a U.S.-run civilian and military base a day earlier, NATO said without providing further details.
The death raises to 480 the number of coalition forces killed in Afghanistan this year.
The U.S.-led alliance said its troops, in tandem with Afghan police, repulsed a Taliban attack Thursday on a camp in Kandahar that is home to NATO troops, including Americans, and a provincial reconstruction team.
NATO said one Afghan interpreter was killed in the attack, while one American civilian contractor and two Afghan security guards were wounded. Five NATO servicemen also were lightly wounded, the alliance said.
The Taliban launched the assault from a compound across from the camp, firing rocket-propelled grenades, NATO said.
Two car bombs went off as Afghan police were clearing the compound, NATO said, but no one was hurt. The buildings had been rigged with explosives, and NATO said its forces fired Hellfire missiles at the compound, killing all four attackers.
Kandahar, and much of the south, had long been seen as a Taliban stronghold, but Afghan and coalition forces have made significant gains in the area and the insurgents have since shifted their operations farther east and to some northern provinces.
NATO said the presence of car bombs at the site indicated the insurgents had a plan, which they were unable to execute, and that it had expected the Taliban to launch such an attack before the onset of winter, when the violence and attacks tend to abate.
In other violence across the country, a civilian car struck a roadside bomb early Friday in Nangarhar province’s Khogyani district, killing two men, a woman and a child, district chief Mohammad Hassan said.
Meanwhile, a Pentagon progress report released Friday said that despite improvements to security in Afghanistan, militants operating from safe havens in Pakistan and chronic problems with the Kabul government pose significant risks to a “durable, stable Afghanistan.”
“Security gains during [the past six months] have provided a firm foundation for the transition of security responsibilities to the Afghan government” and its security forces, the report said.
However, cross-border attacks have increased in recent months because of insurgents’ safe havens in Pakistan and the support they received from within its borders.
“The insurgency remains resilient and, enabled by Pakistani safe havens, continues to contest” Afghan security forces throughout the country, especially in the east, according to the semiannual report sent to Congress.
The report also identified problems with the Afghan government, including widespread corruption, delays in changes and political disputes, as obstacles to U.S. and coalition efforts to get Kabul to take over security for the country.
The United States has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and plans to bring most forces home by the end of 2014.
Information for this article was contributed by Donna Cassata, Matthew Lee and Lolita C. Baldor of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 10/29/2011