Taliban strike Jalalabad
Ex-PH2 sends us an NBC link to the story that nine suicide bombers struck Jalalabad Airfield this morning after they exploded a truckload of explosives at the gate to the base.
None of the insurgents breached the perimeter of the base, U.S. Army Maj. Martyn Crighton, a spokesman for NATO in Kabul, told NBC News. He said there were no reports of fatalities among members of the ISAF but some were wounded.
Local police officials earlier told Reuters that a dozen bodies in Afghan police and military uniforms were scattered around an entrance to the base. It was not clear whether the dead were Afghan security forces or militants dressed in uniforms, a tactic the Taliban sometimes deploy during attacks.
Spokesmen were quick to point out that the attack wasn’t on the scale of the Camp Bastion attack several weeks ago that claimed several lives along with damage to some aircraft.
Stars & Stripes reports that five Afghans were killed in the attack this morning;
Nangarhar provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal said three Afghan National Army soldiers and two civilians were killed, along with all nine attackers. He said the second car bomb detonated prematurely after base guards opened fire on the vehicle.
An insurgent attack on the same base in February killed nine Afghans.
Category: Terror War
The military did a shit job of reporting the actual stuff on the last attack, so I think I will reserve judgement on this one until some time has passed.
“It was not clear whether the dead were Afghan security forces or militants dressed in uniforms….” There is a third possibility: Militants within the Afghan security forces.
Early reporting of this story is all over the place.
My guys up there reported it was a wild night and the fight went on a lot longer than is being reported. They were thrilled that the helos got into the fight right outside the FOB for the first time in over six-months.
That popped up on my screen around midnight, just as lightning flashed and thunder rolled. I was looking for a weather report, and saw that news link, and went to that instead, and then forwarded it.
@3 Lost boys, please keep giving us a heads up.
Thanks for posting that, TSO.
I’m reserving my opinion until it gets sorted out.
GACK!!! I meant “Thanks, JONNNNNN!” Sorry, Jonn.