Taliban Militants Attack Bagram Airbase

19 May 2010

U.S soldiers wait after collecting the body of an insurgent from a vineyard near the Bagram airbase after insurgents launched a brazen pre-dawn assault against the giant U.S.-run Bagram Air Field, in Bagram, Afghanistan. At least 10 insurgents have been killed and seven U.S. service members have been wounded so far in the attack on Bagram, which started at about 3 a.m. with rockets, small arms and grenades fired into the base, said Maj. Virginia McCabe, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces at Bagram, 19 May 2010.

A group of heavily armed Taliban militants attacked a major U.S-run airbase in Afghanistan, sparking gun battles that killed nearly a dozen insurgents and an American contractor. At least nine U.S soldiers were also wounded in the fighting. The militant strike comes a day after a suicide car bombing struck a NATO convoy in the capital Kabul, killing six foreign troops along with 12 Afghan civilians.

The pre-dawn Taliban assault targeted the Bagram airbase, which is located 60 kilometers north of Kabul and is run primarily by the U.S military.

Speaking to VOA by telephone, a U.S spokeswoman at Bagram, Major Virginia McCabe, gave details of the fighting, "Several insurgents were killed in the attack this morning on Bagram Air Base that included small arms fire, mortars, rockets and grenades. Our servicemen responded immediately," she said.