At least six suicide bombers have been killed in an attempted attack on a Nato military base in south-eastern Afghanistan, officials have said.
The militants failed to storm Camp Salerno in Khost province, where many US troops are based, Nato and Afghan officials said.
The attack was launched overnight and the fighting is still going on.
On Monday, nine Afghan civilians were killed when a suicide bomber rammed a car into the gate of the same base.
International troops are often attacked by insurgents in Afghanistan.
However, the growing number of insurgent attacks close to the capital, Kabul, have heightened fears that the Taleban are encroaching on the capital city, says the BBC's Alastair Leithead, in Kabul.
Surge in violence
Before the latest attack, the Taleban announced that a group of 30 Taleban fighters would attack Camp Salerno.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) confirmed that Camp Salerno had been attacked by rockets or mortars, and that a number of suicide bombers had tried to storm the base.
But Isaf said the numbers involved were a lot smaller than the Taleban claimed.
However, the governor of Khost, Arsala Jamal was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying six Taleban were killed in attempting suicide attacks.
"Two children have been killed and two more, along with a woman, have been wounded," he said.
Meanwhile, in Kabul, two rockets landed close to the main Isaf headquarters in the early hours of Tuesday - the second rocket attack on the city in a week.
On Monday, nine people died and 13 others wounded when a car laden with explosives rammed into the gate of Camp Salerno.
The victims were all Afghan civilians. The attack came on a day when Afghanistan was celebrating its independence day.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year with the Taleban often targeting international and Afghan troops.
(BBC)
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