(28 Aug 2010)
1. Various, Afghan National Army soldiers gathered under trees
2. Close of soldier holding gun
3. Various shots of dead body if attacker wearing US army uniform
4. Mid of Afghan soldiers standing
5. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Afghan National Army commander, Major Sakhi Jan:
"There were 18 attackers armed with suicide vests and all kinds of machine guns. Fortunately we killed them all and our operation went very well and quick and we succeeded."
6. Wide of US military base in distance
7. Mid of Afghan soldier pointing to a dead body of attacker
8. Various attackers dead bodies dressed in US military uniforms
STORYLINE:
Insurgents wearing US Army uniforms launched pre-dawn attacks on Saturday on a major NATO base in eastern Afghanistan and a nearby camp where seven CIA employees were killed last year in a suicide bombing.
NATO said there were no coalition casualties and the attacks were repelled.
NATO said at least 21 insurgents were killed - including four who were wearing suicide vests - and five captured in Saturday's coordinated attacks.
Afghanistan's Interior Ministry put the insurgent death toll in the attacks at 24, with five captured and no casualties on the police side.
The Defence Ministry said two Afghan soldiers were killed and three wounded in the fighting.
The assaults on the sprawling Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost province and nearby Camp Chapman came around 3 am local time (2230 GMT Friday), just as area residents were rising for early morning prayers.
The area, about 60 miles (100 kilometres) southeast of Kabul near the border with Pakistan, is a hotbed of activity by the Taliban and other insurgent groups, including the December attack on Chapman that killed four CIA officers and three contracted security guards.
Afghan police said about 50 insurgents attacked using rifles, heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, but had been repelled.
After being driven away from the bases, the insurgents approached the nearby offices of the governor and provincial police headquarters but were driven off, according to Khost provincial police Chief Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai.
Small arms fire continued through the morning, while NATO helicopters patrolled overhead.
NATO said two insurgents had managed to breach Salerno's perimeter, but were observed cutting the fence and killed immediately.
Ishaqzai said they found the bodies of 14 militants outside Salerno and five others had been captured alive.
He said 11 attackers were wearing suicide vests, but it wasn't clear how many of those had been killed and how many captured.
None of them had been able to detonate their vests.
Ishaqzai said police believed the bodies of more insurgents would be found.
Dead insurgents were seen wearing camouflage jackets and pants seemingly identical to those warn by US Army soldiers.
Police captured a pickup truck laden with ammunition along with a light truck packed with explosives that had become stuck in deep mud, according to Major Wazir Pacha of the provincial police headquarters.
Bomb specialists later destroyed the truck and its cargo, according to the Interior Ministry.
NATO said the dead insurgents were members of the Haqqani Network, a Taliban-affiliated group with deep ties to al-Qaida that is accused of launching frequent raids across the border from neighbouring Pakistan.
On Friday, homemade bombs killed three US troops in southern and eastern Afghanistan, bringing the total number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this month to 55, including 35 Americans, according to a count by The Associated Press.

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