Taliban Launch Brazen Strike on NATO Base

Attack comes one day after suicide bomber kills 5 U.S. troops

U.S. soldiers and Afghan policemen stand guard on a road leading to the U.S. air base in Bagram, on Wednesday, May 19, 2010. (Photo credit: Shah Marai / AFP – Getty Images)

Reuters and The Associated Press via MSNBC.com
May 19, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan – Insurgents carrying rockets and grenades launched a brazen pre-dawn attack on a giant U.S.-run base north of Afghanistan’s capital on Wednesday, leaving at least 10 guerrillas dead and 7 foreign troops wounded.

The attack on Bagram air base, about an hour’s drive north of Kabul, continued into daylight with sporadic fire of rockets and small arms outside. One rocket landed inside the base, causing minor damage, but no insurgents managed to get inside Bagram, according to NATO.

Helicopter gunships hovered above Bagram, the main base for the U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan with the largest airfield in the country. It was used by the former Soviet Union during its invasion of the country in the 1980s. …

Taliban offensive

The Bagram attack came one day after a suicide bomber struck a U.S. convoy in Kabul, killing 18 people. The Kabul dead included five American troops and a Canadian.

The back-to-back strikes appeared part of a Taliban offensive that the insurgents announced earlier this month – even as the U.S. and its partners prepare for a major operation to restore order in the turbulent south. …

Video Kabul suicide bomb kills 18 (NBC Nightly News, May 18, 2010) – A Taliban suicide car bomber attacked a NATO-led military convoy during rush hour in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, killing 12 Afghan civilians and at least six NATO troops. (01:21)

In February 2007, a suicide bombing killed more than 20 people at a Bagram security gate while Vice President Dick Cheney was inside. Cheney was unhurt but the Taliban said he was the target.

Deadly day for U.S.

The Bagram assault followed the deadliest day of the year for U.S. forces in Afghanistan with seven Americans dead – including two who died in separate attacks in the south. The dead in the Kabul attack included Canadian Col. Geoff Parker, 42, the highest-ranking member of the Canadian Forces to die in Afghanistan since the Canadian mission began in 2002, the country’s military said. …

The Kabul attack was the heaviest loss of life for NATO in a single attack in the capital since Sept. 17, when a suicide car bomber killed six Italian soldiers. For U.S. forces, it was the bloodiest day since Oct. 27, when nine Americans died in separate attacks in central and southern Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, the Taliban announced a new offensive – “Operation Al-Fatah” or “Victory” – which would target NATO forces, foreign diplomats, contractors and Afghan government officials. …

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Related reports on this site

Afghan War Closes in on Kabul (Oct. 28, 2009)

14 Americans Dead in Afghanistan (Oct. 26, 2009)

9 Coalition Troops Killed (Sept. 19, 2009)

Bagram Air Base Attacked (June 21, 2009)

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5/23/10 Update

Insurgents Attack NATO’s Main Military Base in Southhern Afghanistan

Taliban claim responsibility for third major assault in six days

Video

Insurgents attack NATO’s Afghan base (NBC Nightly News, May 22, 2010) – NBC’s Tom Aspell reports. (01:01)

By Heidi Vogt

May 22, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Taliban claimed responsibility Sunday for a nighttime assault on NATO’s biggest base in southern Afghanistan. Insurgents firing rockets, mortars and automatic weapons tried to storm Kandahar Air Field — the second such attack on a major military installation this week.

Several coalition troops and civilian employees were wounded in the assault Saturday night, but there were no reports of deaths, officials said.

A Canadian Press news agency report from Kandahar said artillery and machine gun fire reverberated through the base, about 300 miles southwest of Kabul, several hours after the attack began. Militants unleashed rockets and mortars about 8 p.m. and then tried unsuccessfully to storm the northern perimeter, officials said. …

It was the third major attack on NATO forces in Afghanistan in six days. …

On Tuesday, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a NATO convoy in the capital, killing 18 people including six NATO service members including five Americans and a Canadian. The next day, dozens of Taliban militants attacked the main U.S. military base — Bagram Air Field — killing an American contractor in fighting that lasted more than eight hours.

On Saturday night, at least five rockets struck the Kandahar base in the initial attack, said Navy Cmdr. Amanda Peterseim, a spokeswoman for NATO forces at the base. Witnesses said explosions continued through much of the night. There were no reports of deaths and Peterseim did not have the precise number of wounded. …

Attacks in the south earlier Saturday killed three NATO service members — one American, one French and one Dutch — and an Afghan interpreter. That brought to 997 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the war began in October 2001, according to an Associated Press count. The Dutch death toll in Afghanistan now is 24 and the French toll is 42. …

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — May 19, 2009

Students of Kabul University shout anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration against May 9 coalition airstrikes on Bala Baluk district of Farah province, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, May 10, 2009. Banners held by the protesters read: “Victims of bombardment, Afghan students are with you.” (Photo credit: Musadeq Sadeq / AP)

Iraq Postpones National Election

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that Iraqi officials postponed national parliamentary elections until Jan. 30, 2010; that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said “We cannot succeed … in Afghanistan by killing Afghan civilians”; and that the U.N. refugee agency reported that nearly 1.5 million people had fled their homes in Pakistan in May in an attempt to escape fighting between government forces and Taliban militants.