KABUL (AFP/Reuters) Gunmen Wednesday set off a car bomb and fired rockets at a Nato base in eastern Afghanistan, officials said, as a soldier with the alliance died from injuries suffered in an attack in the same region. Responsibility for the brazen daylight attack on the Jalalabad air base was claimed by the hardline Taliban. A suicide car bomber blew up a gate at the base in Jalalabad, near the border with Pakistan, and insurgents launched an attack with rocket propelled grenades and small arms. Several assailants were killed during the attack and two service personnel were injured, the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. Jalalabad airfield is under attack, ISAF spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Iain Baxter told AFP as the battle was under way. A local official said at least six insurgents were involved in the raid and that all had been killed. The assault came just days before US General David Petraeus is due to take up his post as Nato commander in Afghanistan, after warning of a tough fight ahead in the nearly nine-year conflict. Concerns about the progress of the war against the hardline Taliban have mounted following the dramatic sacking of Petraeuss predecessor, US General Stanley McChrystal, and an increasing death toll among foreign troops. The dramatic surge in military deaths has raised concerns over what many think is the Taliban gaining strength despite the deployment of thousands of US reinforcements. ISAF announced the death of its 102nd soldier this month, saying he died Wednesday from injuries suffered in an attack in eastern Afghanistan. It did not disclose the exact location or any further details of the incident. Hundreds of Nato and Afghan troops have been hunting Taliban insurgents in a major assault in the mountains of Kunar, which neighbours Nangarhar, in the east of the country close to the border with Pakistan. In a telephone call to AFP, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed responsibility for the attack in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar. The spokesman said six suicide commandos were involved in the attack, which he said killed more than 20 foreign and Afghan forces. An ISAF statement said: Afghan and ISAF forces repelled a number of insurgents when they attacked Jalalabad airfield this morning using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, rocket-propelled grenades, and small arms fire. The statement added that the assailants did not breach the base perimeter. Several insurgents were killed, it said, without disclosing how or how many, adding that two members of the security force were injured. Their nationalities were not given. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a provincial administration spokesman, said suicide bombers were also involved in the strike. With 2,700 military and civilian personnel Jalalabad is one of Natos largest bases in Afghanistan, after Kandahar in the south and Bagram, north of Kabul, which have both been attacked by insurgents in recent months. Four police and seven employees of a security firm were killed in two separate attacks in different parts of southern Afghanistan, the ministry said. Meanwhile, a joint Afghan-coalition force discovered 1,750 kg of ammonium nitrate in Helmand province and arrested two people at the site. The fertilizer is frequently used to make improvised explosive devices such as roadside bombs, which have taken a punishing toll on foreign and Afghan forces as well as ordinary civilians.