Related News
Taliban attack southern Afghan base, troops wounded
Source: Agencies |
May 23, 2010, Sunday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
TALIBAN militants fired rockets and mortars at Kandahar airfield in southern Afghanistan yesterday, wounding NATO troops, officials said.
The attack came days after a brazen assault on one of the coalition's biggest bases in Bagram, north of the Afghan capital, in which an American contractor was killed and nine U.S. troops wounded.
"Kandahar airfield came under indirect fire at approximately 8 o'clock tonight and shortly afterward a ground attack was under way as well," a spokesman for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan said. A small number of NATO personnel were wounded, the spokesman said.
An intelligence source on the Kandahar base said three rockets had hit the base. One hit a helicopter terminal used by foreign troops, wounding four foreigners, one hit a shopping area and another did not hit any significant target.
The source said the Taliban came close to the airfield, fired rockets and then foreign helicopters hit back at them with gunfire.
People on the sprawling base were ordered to go into bunkers, a journalist there said. "The base came under rocket fire, which has been pretty much off and on every night I've been here for the last three weeks, maybe three or four rockets," Lucian Read said.
The Taliban have announced an offensive from May 20 against the government, foreign forces and diplomats in Afghanistan in response to NATO plans for an operation against the group's southern stronghold of Kandahar.
The attack on the Bagram air base came a day after a NATO convoy was hit by a suicide bomber in Kabul, killing 12 Afghan civilians and six foreign troops.
The attack came days after a brazen assault on one of the coalition's biggest bases in Bagram, north of the Afghan capital, in which an American contractor was killed and nine U.S. troops wounded.
"Kandahar airfield came under indirect fire at approximately 8 o'clock tonight and shortly afterward a ground attack was under way as well," a spokesman for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan said. A small number of NATO personnel were wounded, the spokesman said.
An intelligence source on the Kandahar base said three rockets had hit the base. One hit a helicopter terminal used by foreign troops, wounding four foreigners, one hit a shopping area and another did not hit any significant target.
The source said the Taliban came close to the airfield, fired rockets and then foreign helicopters hit back at them with gunfire.
People on the sprawling base were ordered to go into bunkers, a journalist there said. "The base came under rocket fire, which has been pretty much off and on every night I've been here for the last three weeks, maybe three or four rockets," Lucian Read said.
The Taliban have announced an offensive from May 20 against the government, foreign forces and diplomats in Afghanistan in response to NATO plans for an operation against the group's southern stronghold of Kandahar.
The attack on the Bagram air base came a day after a NATO convoy was hit by a suicide bomber in Kabul, killing 12 Afghan civilians and six foreign troops.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
