Additional reporting by Mohamed Ataiey, IOL Correspondent

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, November 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A volley of rockets fired at a U.S. outpost in southeastern Afghanistan was the latest attack on coalition forces hunting al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, Afghani police and a U.S. military spokesman said Monday, November 25.

Kabul police chief told IslamOnline that he "thought troops loyal to Islamic Party leader Ghulb Edeen Hikmatyar bear responsibility for the attack", adding that the rockets were fired from an area controlled by Hikmatyar's forces.

Around 10 missiles, nine of which contained flammable white phosphorus, hit a base at Lwara Saturday, close to the border with Pakistan, Colonel Roger King told reporters at Bagram air base, north of Kabul.

"One of the rockets impacted inside the compound causing three small fires which were contained," King said.

The attack came within hours of an assault on a U.S. base in nearby Khost province in which a rocket landed inside the perimeter, causing damage to two U.S. trucks. There were no casualties from either incident, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

King said air support was scrambled from Bagram and one 227-kilogramme (500-pound) bomb was dropped on an area where the assailants were believed hidden.

Late Sunday, coalition special operations forces came under machine gun fire at a base in Gardez, also in the southeastern border zone.

Attacks on coalition facilities have been regular occurrences during the year-long military campaign in Afghanistan, although few actually hit their target.

King said the use of white phosphorus missiles was rare but did not necessarily represent a change of strategy.

He said the attacks were unlikely to be the work of a single group and could represent a collaboration by Taliban fighters, their al-Qaeda associates and supporters of ex-Premier Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami party.