Insurgents Attack NATO Base in Afghanistan

Separately, 5 service members killed, fuel convoy set ablaze

An Afghan police officer points to the site of fire after a convoy of NATO fuel tankers was attacked by militants in Behsod district of Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010. (Rahmat Gul / AP)

By Rahim Faiez

Nov. 14, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — A series of bomb blasts and insurgents attacks killed 11 people across Afghanistan on Sunday, including five NATO service members and three Afghan police, officials said.

The strikes, which come a day after Taliban fighters stormed a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan, show the insurgents’ fighting spirit has not been broken despite a surge of U.S. troops and firepower. …

NATO said three coalition service members were killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan and two others died in separate explosions in the south. The international military coalition did not provide further details or the nationalities of the dead service members. The deaths brought to 31 the number of coalition service members who have died in Afghanistan so far this month. …

A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded in a marketplace in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, just east of the Pakistan border, killing two people and wounding 10, said district government chief Abdul Ghani.

Also in Nangahar province, a bomb placed in a wheelbarrow exploded in the provincial capital of Jalalabad, killing one person and wounding nine others, including six children and two women, the Interior Ministry said.

Insurgents also set fire to a NATO fuel convoy early Saturday morning. A group of gunmen rushed the trucks in Behsud district of Nangarhar province — the same area on the edge of Jalalabad city where a group of would-be suicide bombers tried to storm a NATO base on Saturday, provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said.

The truck drivers quickly fled and the insurgents set 12 tankers ablaze, said Abdulzai. Firefighters worked to quell the flames throughout the morning, as police secured the area. No one was killed in the attack, Abdulzai said.

Insurgents on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border have routinely struck NATO supply convoys — including a pair of attacks on Oct. 6 in which 55 fuel tankers were set ablaze in Pakistan. The alliance says the attacks have not caused supply problems for troops. …

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Related reports on this site

Officials gather evidence near oil trucks in Shikarpur, Pakistan, on Friday, Oct. 1, 2010 after an attack on trucks carrying supplies to U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, killing two civilian contractors and torching the vehicles, most of them carrying fuel. (Photo credit: Aaron Favila / AP)

U.S. Supply Convoy Torched Again (Oct. 3, 2010)

Pakistan Shuts U.S. Supply Line (Sept. 30, 2010)

Easter Attack on U.S. Supply Line (April 12, 2009)

U.S. Supply Line Attacked (Dec. 8, 2008)

Militants Hijack U.S. Supply Convoy in Pakistan (Nov. 12, 2008)

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3/6/11 Update

Targeted Tankers

Pakistani police and firefighters gather beside flames that erupted from the wreckage of NATO oil tankers following a blast at a terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar on Feb. 26, 2011. Four NATO tankers gutted by a series of blasts on Feb. 25 caught fire again when an unexploded timed device went off. (Photo credit: A. Majeed / AFP — Getty Images)

Slide presentation and story: Low pay, big risks for fuel haulers in Afghan war

Nowsher Awan, 30, will drive 435 miles through Taliban territory to deliver 15,600 gallons of fuel. The U.S. war effort in Afghanistan would grind to a halt without men like him. …

Full story

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — November 14, 2009

Poll: Bachmann Approval at 51%

Rep. Michele Bachmann at the Sartell SummerFest Parade, 
June 14, 2008. (Photo credit: St. Cloud Times)

One year ago today, I reported that a Rasmussen Reports poll found U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s statewide job approval rating in Minnesota at 51 percent, with 45 percent disapproving and 4 percent not sure.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — November 14, 2008

Counting the Dead in Iraq

Jassim Hatem, right, grieves as his son’s coffin is taken for burial in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008. Ali Jassim, 21, was one of 23 people killed in a string of bombings that rocked Baghdad for the third consecutive day. (Photo credit: Khalid Mohammed / AP)

Two years ago today, on Nov. 14, 2008, I reported an Associated Press tally documenting at least 26 deadly bombings in Baghdad in the first half of November, compared with 28 for all of October and 22 in September, with at least 102 people killed in the Iraqi capital in just the first half of November 2008, compared with 95 in October and 96 in September.