NATO, Afghan forces kill 14 after rebels attack base KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - NATO and Afghan forces killed 14 insurgents during a rebel attack on a foreign military base in the eastern city of Khost on Friday, the coalition said, in one of the heaviest rebel tolls in a single incident in weeks. Several insurgents, including some wearing suicide vests, attacked the base with rocket propelled grenades. "As of now, we have reports of 14 insurgents killed," a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said. He said the attack on the forward operating base had been foiled, although he was not in a position to provide operational details. There were no casualties among either NATO or Afghan forces. The province of Khost on the border with Pakistan is a stronghold of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network which the United States says is behind a string of bombings in Kabul as well as attacks on foreign forces in the countryside. A blast was heard and smoke was rising near the facility, a Reuters witness and nearby residents said earlier. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters armed with heavy weapons went inside the base after the blast. The last big rebel toll was in April when 35 insurgents were killed after the Taliban launched attacks in Kabul and other areas in what they claimed was the start of the spring offensive. The United States blamed the Haqqani network for those attacks. Ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops in 2014, NATO and Afghan forces are increasingly focused on the east, where insurgents take advantage of the steep, often forested terrain and the Pakistani border to launch attacks and then slip beyond the reach of NATO and Afghan troops. Reporting by Elyas Wahdat in KHOST and Hamid Shalizi in KABUL; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Myra MacDonald