Gunmen set off a car bomb and fired rocket propelled grenades at one of the biggest Nato bases in Afghanistan on Wednesday in a brazen daylight attack claimed by the hardline Islamist Taliban.
Several gunmen were killed in the strike on the Jalalabad base in eastern Afghanistan, and two service personnel were injured, according to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force.
The attack came just days before US General David Petraeus is due to take up his post as Nato commander in Afghanistan following the dramatic sacking of Stanley McChrystal for insubordination.
“Jalalabad airfield is under attack,” said ISAF spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Iain Baxter. “It is still going on.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed the attack in a telephone call to AFP. Mr Baxter said however that the gunmen were unable to penetrate the base.
“Afghan and ISAF forces repelled a number of insurgents when they attacked Jalalabad airfield this morning using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, rocket-propelled grenades, and small arms fire,” an ISAF statement said.
“This was not only an attack on a combined Afghan and ISAF facility, it was also an attack on the people of Afghanistan,” it said.
Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the government of the province of Nangarhar, of which Jalalabad is the capital, said suicide bombers were also involved in the strike.
Jalalabad is one of Nato’s largest bases in Afghanistan, after Kandahar in the south and Bagram, north of Kabul, which have both been attacked by insurgents in recent months.
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Eight militants killed in airport gunbattle
Kabul, June 30: Militants set off a car bomb and stormed the entrance to an airport in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday in a failed attempt to enter the air field used by Afghan and international forces, authorities said.
Eight insurgents died in the ensuing gunbattle. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault, part of an upswing in violence in the nearly 9-year-old war. Using light weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, the militants battled international forces for 30 minutes on the outskirts of Jalalabad city, according to information provided by the media office at the airport. —AP