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Taliban fighters attack US airbase
Key military facility in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province targeted by men disguised as Afghan army troops.
Last Modified: 13 Nov 2010 07:45 GMT
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Afghan National Army soldiers stand over the body of a Taliban fighter, dressed in an army uniform [REUTERS] In a pre-dawn attack on Saturday, Taliban fighters assaulted Forward Operating Base Fenty, part of the Jalalabad airfield in eastern Afghanistan.Ahmad Zia Abdulzoi, a Nangarhar provincial government spokesman, said eight attackers were killed, many of whom had been wearing Afghan army uniforms.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, initially claimed that 14 suicide bombers were involved in the assault.
An Isaf statement said that no ANA or Isaf servicemembers were killed in the attack.
And in a separate attack in Kunduz provice, a motorcycle bomb has killed at least 10 people, including two policemen, according to the Afghan interior ministry.
Al Jazeera's Sue Turton, reporting from Kabul, said the Jalalabad base has been targeted before and is a key site for transporting military supplies from Kabul.
Upswing in violence
The Taliban claimed responsibility for a previous daylight attack on the Jalalabad air base in June, which saw a car bomb set off and rockets fired at foreign forces.
A number of assailants were killed and two service personnel were injured during the attack, which came just days before US General David Petraeus took up his post as NATO's top commander in Afghanistan.
Jalalabad has more than 2,500 military and civilian personnel and is one of Nato's largest bases in Afghanistan after Kandahar in the south and Bagram, north of Kabul.
Saturday's assault in Jalalabad came after a failed suicide bomb attack on a convoy of Afghan and Nato-led troops on Friday in the outskirts of the capital, signalling a possible spike in violence in the lead-up to two important international events regarding the conflict in Afghanistan.
Nato leaders gather in Lisbon next week, with Afghanistan to top the agenda as European members reassess their commitments amid flagging support for the war back home.
Barack Obama, the US president, will also review his Afghanistan war strategy next month and has committed to starting a gradual troop withdrawal of US troops from July 2011.
Violence is at its worst across Afghanistan since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, with civilian and military casualties at record levels - despite the presence of 150,000 foreign troops.
Saturday marks the ninth anniversary of the fall of the Taliban to US-backed Afghan forces.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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