NATO soldier among 17 killed in Afghan attacks

KABUL - One NATO soldier and 16 insurgents were killed, and four NATO soldiers and a dozen more rebels were wounded, in two separate attacks in the eastern and southern regions of Afghanistan, officials said on Monday.
The NATO soldiers came across the militants while they were patrolling on Sunday, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.
The injured ISAF soldiers were transported to a military hospital to receive treatment, the statement said, but it did not identify their nationalities or say where in southern Afghanistan the incident took place.
The majority of the ISAF troops deployed in southern regions are US, Canadian, Dutch and British.
"These brave soldiers were trying to help bring peace and security to Afghanistan," ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Carlos Branco was quoted in the statement as saying.
Meanwhile, a dozen Taliban insurgents were killed and as many were wounded in a fight with Afghan and US military forces in the eastern province of Kunar on Sunday, the US military said in a statement.
The clash erupted after a group of Taliban consisting of "an estimated 30 to 40 insurgents attacked five bases in the Korengal valley with small-arms fire, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and indirect fire," it said.
Afghan and US forces repelled the rebels' attack with small arms, heavy artillery close-air support, and killed and wounded two dozen of the insurgents, the statement said.
It said that no Afghans, US soldiers or civilians were killed or injured in the attack.
In the southern Ghazni province, four Taliban were killed and 15 more were wounded in an encounter with police in the Andar district of the province on Monday, Zia Wali Zadran, spokesman for the provincial governor, said.
The firefight erupted after a group of Taliban attacked the security guards of a private Afghan construction company in the area, Zadran said, adding that four guards were also wounded in the exchange of gun-fire.
In another incident, a spokesman for the German Defence Ministry in Berlin said that a Monday morning attack on a column of German vehicles in Afghanistan was not a suicide bombing.
"We have no evidence pointing to a suicide attack," said a spokesma for German military command in Potsdam, adding that the attack consisted of an explosive only.
No injuries to allied forces or civilians were reported.
Engineer Omar, provincial governor for northern Kunduz, earlier said that a suicide bomber, who had strapped explosives around his body, had been blown to pieces.