KABUL, November 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. troops engaged in rooting out al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in southeastern Afghanistan have come under fire in the latest of a series of intensified attacks on bases in the area, a U.S. military statement said Monday, November 18.

U.S. special forces troops based at Gardez, in Paktia province close to the border with Pakistan, reported that a 107 mm rocket was fired at their outpost from an improvised launch platform late Saturday, November 17, the statement said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The incident, from which there were no reports of casualties or damage, follows an attack involving nine 107 mm rockets on the same base Thursday, November 14, and comes amid a wave of seemingly well-coordinated assaults on coalition forces.

In nearby Khost, U.S. soldiers based at Chapman airfield reported two people firing rockets at the facility, which landed two kilometers (one and a quarter miles) to the southwest, the statement said.

Over the weekend, coalition forces detained two armed men apparently involved in a rocket attack on a base at Shkin, in Paktia province. An unknown number of gunmen escaped over the border into Pakistan.

Last week at Lwara, also close to the Pakistan frontier, U.S. forces said they had killed at least two attackers. The same base earlier came under fire from up to 15 rockets in what the U.S. military said was an unusually well-coordinated assault.

According to Monday's statement, U.S. forces in Afghanistan have also been involved in evacuating several Afghans injured by weapons and ordnance.

One Afghan man was taken to Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, the center of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, after his leg was blown off by a landmine, a legacy of the country's two decades of conflict.

Another man was taken to a U.S. base in the southern city of Kandahar after his right hand, leg and foot were badly injured by a hand-grenade.

The U.S. military was also involved in aiding a three-year-old Afghan child who was shot in the face and a 17-year-old shot in his right thigh. The father of the three-year-old child, who was shot in his right calf, was treated alongside the other two.

The statement said all three were in a stable condition, but did not give any details of the circumstances surrounding their injuries.

In a separate related development, the U.S. military Saturday, November 9, dismissed reports it had become involved in a tribal dispute in southeastern Afghanistan after local commanders claimed U.S. helicopters had opened fire.

"We are very careful to stay away from the fighting between various groups, which we are doing our best to discourage," spokesman Major Steve Clutter told AFP.

His comments came after Khial Baz Khan, a commander in the Khost province, said U.S. helicopters became involved in a land dispute between members of the nomadic Kuchi tribe and the Khost-based Sabari.

Khan said fighting broke out early Thursday, November 7, after the Sabari accused the Kuchi of building on their pastures in the Yaqobi area of the province.

"The Sabari started to destroy the houses of the nomads, who began to fight back. The governor sent in some forces to try to calm the situation.

"When these forces arrived they came under fire and fighting started. Hearing these gunshots, three Americans came to the area, saw the fighting and called in the helicopters. Finally we arrested 12 nomads."

Mamoor, a spokesman for the government troops, said the helicopters were shot at and subsequently retaliated.

"The fighting continued for three hours, the helicopters arrived and the nomads tried to shoot them, the helicopters returned fire."

The U.S. military maintains a large presence in Afghanistan where it continues to lead a coalition force in pursuit of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. It operates several bases in Khost province.

"We do have operations in Khost, but our policy would be to avoid involvement in green-on-green fighting," Clutter said, referring to inter-Afghan conflict.

Sporadic fighting has continued throughout Afghanistan following last year's defeat of the Taliban which was supposed to have effectively brought an end to 23 years of warfare.