Wire: 2 US Troops Die in Attack on Base in Afghanistan

Off the Wire:

WASHINGTON, July 4, 2009 -- Newswire services this morning reported that Taliban militants fired rockets and mortars at a U.S. coalition base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing two American troops and wounding several more in a two-hour battle, officials said.

During the battle, which ended after U.S. forces called in airstrikes, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck (VBIED) toward the base's gates. It blew up when American troops fired on it.

The Associated Press reported that more than 30 insurgents were killed in the clash in Zerok district of Paktika province, according to Hamidullah Zawak, the provincial governor spokesman.

Seven U.S. and two Afghan troops were wounded, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The attack at the base near the Pakistan border happened hundreds of miles from the massive U.S. Marine assault in southern Afghanistan.

This is a developing story.

(Report from newswire sources.)

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