Patrolling US troops in firefight with insurgents

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Insurgents attacked U.S. troops in southeastern Afghanistan, sparking a gunbattle in which American helicopters were called in for strikes, the military said Saturday.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Army soldier died Saturday when his vehicle flipped over elsewhere in the southeast of the country, the military said. An investigation was under way to determine the cause of the accident, which occurred near a U.S. base in Orgun in Paktika province.

The gunbattle erupted Friday elsewhere in Paktika province -- near a U.S. base in Shkin, a volatile town near the Pakistan border, U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said in a statement.

An American patrol near the base came under attack from about 10 insurgents. The troops called in support from helicopter gunships, and the attackers scattered.

The gunbattle was the latest in a series of stepped-up attacks by rebels in Afghanistan over the last several months. The insurgents are believed to be a mix of holdouts from the former Taliban regime, members of the al-Qaida terrorist network and loyalists of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister.

On Wednesday, three U.S. special forces soldiers were shot -- one later died from his wounds -- by attackers near Gardez, another eastern town.

About 11,500 coalition troops, most of them Americans, are in Afghanistan carrying out operations against the guerrillas. The Taliban government was toppled in a U.S.-led war in 2001.