Insurgents launched a brazen pre-dawn assault Wednesday against the giant US-run Bagram Air Field, killing an American contractor and wounding nine troops in the second Taliban strike at Nato forces in and around the capital in as many days.
Small groups of suicide bombers some wearing uniforms that appeared to match those of US or Nato forces tried to storm the base's defences, while others fired rockets, grenades and guns over the walls into the base, said Major Virginia McCabe, a spokeswoman for US forces at Bagram. No insurgents made it inside the base, but blasts and gunbattles raged for eight hours as US soldiers hunted the attackers down in the surrounding fields north of Kabul, she said.
At least 10 of the insurgents died, according to McCabe. Five of them were killed by air strikes, said Lutf Rahman Reshad, an Afghan police official in Bagram district. McCabe said that helicopters were out in a supporting role but she could not confirm if air strikes killed any of the insurgents or even if any of them fired.
US forces said the base was undamaged except for 'minor' damage to one building not considered strategically important. There were no details about the dead contractor. In the latest violence in the south, a Nato service member died in a bomb attack Wednesday, the military alliance said in a statement. It did not provide further details.
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