Insurgents launch ground assault, rocket attack at Kandahar Airfield
Posted May 22, 2010 4:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The main Canadian military base in Afghanistan came under attack Saturday after insurgents fired rockets and mortars before quickly launching a ground attack.
The attack at the Kandahar airfield base, also the main NATO base in southern Afghanistan, occurred at about 8 p.m. local time as militants tried unsuccessfully to breach the northern perimeter.
A small number of people were injured and being treated, said Squadron Leader Paul Scott, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force.
“It’s still ongoing at the moment,” Scott told The Canadian Press. “It’s still evolving.”
The nationalities of the wounded were not immediately known. But another official with ISAF said the injured included civilians and military personnel.
At least five rockets and mortars were lobbed at the vast Kandahar airbase before it came under ground attack.
Troops and civilians on the base hit the ground before scurrying for cover in bunkers. Some soldiers later donned their flak vests and grabbed their weapons.
Three hours after the attack, the boom of artillery and the rattle of gunfire could be heard in the distance. Sirens blared intermittently.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Defence Minister Peter MacKay were both told of the attack and were monitoring developments.
“I have been briefed on the attack, I’ve been informed about it, but it would probably be a bit premature for me to comment on it at any length,” Harper told reporters on Saturday during an appearance at an event in Dryden, Ont. “Obviously it reminds us that our men and women in uniform in all capacities over there, including on the airfield, do face constant danger.”
Isolated rocket attacks are commonplace at the base, but they are often wildly inaccurate. Ground attacks at the heavily fortified base, however, are very rare and Saturday’s attack was heavier than normal.
The sprawling base, which has grown to the size of a small city, has become the launching pad for thousands of additional U.S. forces pouring into the country for a summer surge against the Taliban.
It’s the third major assault on NATO’s military hubs in Afghanistan in six days.
On Tuesday, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, killing 18 people including Col. Geoff Parker, the highest-ranking Canadian soldier to die in the Afghan mission to date. Five U.S. servicemen also died.
Then on Wednesday, dozens of Taliban militants attacked the main U.S. military base _ Bagram Airfield _ killing an American contractor in fighting that lasted more than eight hours. Nine others were wounded.
The attacks came two weeks after the Taliban announced a spring offensive against NATO forces and Afghan government troops _ their response to a promise by U.S. President Barack Obama to flush the Taliban out of their strongholds in southern Kandahar province.
Attacks in the south earlier Saturday killed three NATO service members and a civilian working with the military, NATO said in a statement. It did not provide further details.
