KABUL, Afghanistan - Suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a U.S. military base near Afghanistan-Pakistan border in a daring attack on a major American installation, officials said Tuesday. Six insurgents detonated their vests after being surrounded.

The attack came a day after a suicide bomb outside the same base killed 10 civilians and wounded 13 others. The fighting was still going on early Tuesday, said U.S. coalition spokesman 1st Lt. Nathan Perry. There have been no American deaths, he said.

The militants failed to gain entry to Camp Salerno in Khost city after launching waves of attacks just before midnight on Monday, said Arsallah Jamal, the governor of Khost. The base is just a few miles from Pakistan's border.

Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said Afghan soldiers, aided by U.S. troops, chased and surrounded a group of insurgents, and that six militants blew themselves up when cornered. Seven other militants died in those explosions and a rolling gun battle, he said.

"(The Afghan National Army) is saying that anytime we get close to them, they detonate themselves," Jamal said.

At least 13 insurgents and two Afghan civilians died in the attack, officials said. Five Afghan soldiers were wounded in the fighting, Azimi said.

Officials also said Tuesday that French soldiers were involved in a large battle 30 miles outside of the capital and that casualties were feared.

Qazi Suliman, the district chief in Surobi, says a patrol of French soldiers came under Taliban attack on Monday, sparking a three-hour gunbattle. Suliman says he has a report that 13 militants were killed.

ORLANDO, Fla. ¡V John McCain told fellow veterans Monday that Barack Obama tried to legislate failure in Iraq and has refused to admit he erred when opposing the military surge there last year.

Mr. McCain said Mr. Obama placed his political self-interest ahead of his country's. Mr. McCain told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that Mr. Obama's positions have changed as his political ambitions grew.

"A lot of people are still trying to square Sen. Obama's varying positions on the surge in Iraq. First, he opposed the surge and confidently predicted that it would fail. Then he tried to prevent funding for the troops who carried out the surge," Mr. McCain said.

"Not content to merely predict failure in Iraq, my opponent tried to legislate failure."

Mr. Obama has acknowledged the surge reduced violence in Iraq but says it has failed to facilitate a reconciliation among contentious Iraqi factions. He proposes to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq within 16 months; Mr. McCain opposes any timetable for withdrawal.

Iraqi leaders have pressed the U.S. for a timetable for withdrawal.

"It is hard to understand how Sen. McCain can at once proclaim his support for the sovereign government of Iraq, and then stubbornly defy their expressed support for a timeline to remove our combat brigades from their country," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

The Iraq debate has been reduced to surge rhetoric, which works out great for John McCain. According to a drafted agreement, U.S. troops will leave Iraq in three years. This, combined with less violence there and the increasingly tenuous Afghanistan situation, means the public will begin to forget about Iraq.

---- McCain won't have to dwell on how he voted for a war on false grounds; he can ignore how he supported military action regardless of the lack of weapons of mass destruction.

---- The Iraq occupation will start winding down, but do you trust this man to peacefully resolve conflicts with Iran or other countries? McCain brags about his foreign policy experience, but the choices he's made cast doubt on his ability and judgment.