Reporting from Kabul -- Two American troops were killed and six other Americans – four service members and two civilians – were wounded in an early morning rocket attack at sprawling Bagram Air Field Sunday.
Military authorities said at least three rockets slammed inside the base perimeter at about 2 a.m., in a rare instance of an insurgent attack inflicting casualties inside the heavily fortified compound. It was only the third rocket or mortar attack to penetrate the base since January.
he wounded were treated at a medical facility on the Bagram base, which is the size of a small city. Located along the fertile Shamali plain about 25 miles north of Kabul, the base and airfield are surrounded by farmland, desert and towering mountains.
The rockets hit in separate areas of the base, while another exploded outside the security barrier, according to a military spokesman. A police official in Bagram district, which surrounds the base, said he had heard no reports of Afghan civilian deaths or injuries.
`We offer our condolences and sympathy to the families of our two brave service members," said Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commanding general of Combined Joint Task Force-82 at Bagram. ``Their sacrifice in the name of security and a better way of life for the Afghan people will not be forgotten.''
The attack brought the U.S. death toll in Afghanistan this year to at least 81, according to icasualties.org, a private website that tracks combat deaths.
At that pace, this year's total would eclipse the 155 U.S. deaths last year, the highest annual total in the seven-and-a-half year conflict. The previous record high was in 2007, when 117 American troops died.
At least 94 U.S. troops have died in combat in Iraq so far this year, according to the website.
The attack came just hours after military spokesmen on Saturday announced three U.S. combat deaths – two National Guard soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar Friday and a U.S. soldier killed by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan Saturday.
The Soviet-era Bagram base, which includes an airfield with several runways, is busy 24 hours a day. Day and night, thousands of U.S. and NATO soldiers – along with thousands more civilian contractors from several nations – can be seen walking the streets, shopping, eating at fast food outlets or sipping coffee at an all-night coffee shop.
The Afghan residential areas around the base are relatively secure, and rocket or mortar attacks inside the vast Bagram compound are rare.
In February 2007, 23 people were killed by a suicide bomb attack outside the Bagram base while then-Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting inside. The bomber did not penetrate a series of U.S.-manned security checkpoints leading into the main base.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack, and for the rocket attack Sunday.
Sunday 21 June 2009
Rocket attack at Afghan base kills two US troops, injures six others
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