December 2, 2012

Kabul, Afghanistan Three suicide car bombs were used to target a joint U.S.-Afghan base in eastern Afghanistan early Sunday in an attack that left at least three Afghan soldiers and two civilians dead, officials said.

The attack, described as "complex," began shortly before sunrise when insurgents attacked three different points at Forward Operating Base Fenty, near the Jalalabad Airfield, according to the NATO-led International Assistance Security Forces' regional command in Nangarhar province.

It's the latest in a series of attacks in recent years that has targeted the base, and it comes just months after NATO troops turned over security responsibilities for Nangarhar province to Afghan forces.

There were conflicting reports over casualties. ISAF said the attack left at least one Afghan solider dead and several wounded.

A provincial police spokesman put the toll at two civilians and three soldiers killed. At least 14 Afghan soldiers and four civilians were wounded in the blasts, said Havrat Hussain Mashriqwal, the police spokesman.

There were no immediate reports of any U.S. casualties.

The attack began shortly after 5 a.m. when insurgents detonated a car bomb near the front gate of the base, according to Mashriqwal.

A second suicide car bomb attempting to breach the base exploded after U.S. and Afghan troops opened fire, Mashriqwal said. A third car bomb, according to the coalition, was detonated outside the base's perimeter.

"Afghan National Army and International Security Assistance Force soldiers repelled the attack and prevented any insurgent fighters from entering the perimeter, causing numerous insurgent casualties in the process," the statement said.

The insurgents -- three suicide bombers and six gunmen -- were killed in the blasts and the firefight that ensued, Mashriqwal said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to CNN.

Mujahid said there were two suicide car bombs and a suicide bomber with an explosive belt used in the attack, which he claimed killed at least 20 people.

The Taliban routinely makes telephone calls or sends out emails claiming responsibility for attacks against coalition and Afghan troops.

The province borders Pakistan's volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, home to a number of insurgent groups, including members of the Haqqani Network.

Insurgents have been active in Nangarhar, which is home to the Tora Bora region -- where al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden escaped after a 2001 battle with coalition forces.

Sunday's attack at FOB Fenty is the latest in a series to target the base and neighboring Jalalabad Airfield.

In February, nine people were killed and 12 wounded in a suicide bombing at the front gate of the base near the airfield. Two moths later, four suicide bombers wearing women's burqas tried to launch an attack there, airfield commander Jahangir Azimi said at the time.

In June 2010, Taliban insurgents hit the front gate with a car bomb, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/02/world/asia/afghanistan-violence/

Taliban attack on Afghan NATO base kills five

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Taliban suicide attackers struck at a NATO base on an Afghan city airport at dawn on Sunday, killing five people and wounding several foreign troops in a two-hour battle, officials said.

NATO helicopters went into action, firing on the insurgents as they tried to storm the base after two suicide car bombs hit the perimeter gate of the Jalalabad airport near the Pakistan border.

A total of eight attackers armed with rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons were killed, Afghan officials said.

The assault came as the usual summer fighting season should be drawing to a close, indicating that the insurgency remains resilient after surviving the biggest onslaught US-led forces will throw against them.

The last of the extra 33,000 soldiers President Barack Obama deployed in a "surge" nearly three years ago left in September, and the vast majority of the remaining NATO force of more than 100,000 will follow by the end of 2014.

One of the aims of the surge was to put so much pressure on the Taliban that they would come to the negotiating table, but the insurgents called off early contacts in March.

The hardline Islamists have waged an 11-year insurgency against the Afghan government since being overthrown in a US-led invasion for harbouring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The Taliban claimed its militants had managed to enter the base and caused heavy casualties but this was denied by NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"Insurgents including suicide bombers attacked the perimeter of the Jalalabad air base this morning," a spokesman told AFP. "None of the attackers succeeded breaching the perimeter.

"I can confirm that there were helicopters involved in the coalition response to the attack.

"A number of ISAF forces were wounded," he added, noting that it was ISAF policy not to disclose the toll of those injured.

The airport complex has multiple layers of security, with the NATO base set well back from the first entrance, which an Afghan official said had been breached.

Three Afghan guards were killed and 14 wounded, while two civilians also died and four others were injured, police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal told AFP.

"First there was a car bombing next to the entrance followed by gun attack by the insurgents," a senior Afghan security official said. "They couldn't reach NATO forces and they were killed in the area between the first and second gates."

The Taliban claimed their militants had entered the airport and caused heavy casualties.

"First a fedayee (suicide bomber) mujahid... detonated a car bomb causing the enemy heavy casualties and losses and removed all the barriers," the Taliban said on their website.

"After the attack other fedayee mujahids entered the base... and started attacking the invading forces in the base."

The interior ministry said in a statement that "suicide attacks are an indication of weakness of the Taliban terrorists.

"These enemies of peace and stability must understand that such cowardly, un-Islamic and inhuman attacks can not deter Afghan security forces from serving the suffering Afghan nation."

The Jalalabad airport has come under attack on two previous occasions this year.

But the biggest attack on a coalition base this year came in September, when insurgents stormed Camp Bastion in the south, destroying six fighter aircraft in the largest single loss of air assets for the United States since the Vietnam War.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j1ovekmkRaZ7WpWO...