Insurgents launch ground assault on NATO’s main southern Afghan base, repelled after 1 hour
By APTuesday, August 3, 2010
Insurgents attack NATO’s main southern Afghan base
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO officials say insurgents launched a ground attack on the military coalition’s largest base in the south, but did not breach the base’s defenses.
A NATO spokesman at Kandahar Air Field, Maj. Fred De Mos, says the one-hour assault started before midday Tuesday and lasted about an hour before the attackers fled.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but it fits the pattern of Taliban attacks against high-profile government and military targets.
Taliban insurgents previously tried to storm the Kandahar base on May 22, just a few days after they attacked the main U.S. base in the country — Bagram Air Field.
De Mos said he did not yet have any information on casualties, nor how many assailants there were.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Police say six private security guards were beheaded during a bank robbery in northern Afghanistan.
Sherjan Durani, the spokesman for the police chief in Balkh province, said Tuesday that somebody mixed a suspected poison into the guards’ food Monday night at a branch of Kabul Bank in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Durani says an unknown number of robbers beheaded the guards and took about $269,000 in U.S. and Afghan currency.
The case is being investigated.
