KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents launched a brazen pre-dawn assault today against the giant U.S.-run Bagram Air Field, the second Taliban strike at NATO forces in and around the capital in as many days.
At least 10 insurgents were killed and seven U.S. service members wounded in the attack on Bagram, which started at about 3 a.m. with rockets, small arms and grenades fired into the base, said Maj. Virginia McCabe, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces at Bagram.
The gunfire finally subsided around midday, said another spokesman, Master Sgt. Tom Clementson.
“It’s been a little while since we’ve heard any gunfire but we’re still maintaining a heightened security posture,” he said.
The attack came a one day after a suicide bomber struck a U.S. convoy in the capital of Kabul, killing 18 people. The dead included five American troops and a Canadian, making it the deadliest attack on NATO in the Afghan capital in eight months.
The back-to-back attacks appeared part of a Taliban offensive that the insurgents announced earlier this month — even as the U.S. and its partners prepare for a major operation to restore order in the turbulent south. The insurgent attacks against both the capital and a major American military installation show the militants are prepared to strike at the heart of the U.S.-led mission.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for both the Kabul bombing and the attack at Bagram, 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Kabul. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said 20 suicide attackers were involved.
A building was damaged in the attack but it was “not a mission-essential building,” McCabe said. She said that while they could still hear occasional small-arms fire around the base late in the morning, “it is becoming more and more sporadic.”
NATO’s senior civilian representative in Afghanistan said that insurgents had been repelled from an attempt to breach the base’s defenses.
“We know that a group of insurgents sought to penetrate the air base and that’s been dealt with,” Mark Sedwill told reporters.
An Afghan provincial police commander, Gen. Abdul Rahman Sayedkhail, said the attack began when U.S. guards spotted would-be attackers in a car just outside the Bagram base. The Americans opened fire, triggering a gunbattle in which at least one militant triggered his suicide vest. Running gunbattles broke out as U.S. troops hunted down the other attackers.
In February 2007, a suicide bombing killed more than 20 people at a Bagram security gate while Vice President Dick Cheney was inside the base. Cheney was unhurt but the Taliban said he was the target.
The Bagram assault occurred following the deadliest day of the year for U.S. forces in Afghanistan with seven Americans dead — including two who died in separate attacks in the south. Twelve Afghan civilians also died in Tuesday’s blast — many of them on a public bus in rush-hour traffic along a major thoroughfare that runs by the ruins of a one-time royal palace and government ministries.
The attacks followed a Taliban announcement earlier this month of a spring offensive — “Operation Al-Fatah” or “Victory” — which would target NATO forces, foreign diplomats, contractors and Afghan government officials.
The announcement was made on the eve of Karzai’s visit to Washington and comes as U.S., NATO and Afghan forces are gearing up for a major operation to secure Kandahar, the biggest city in the south and the former Taliban headquarters before they were ousted from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. U.S. officials believe control of Kandahar is the key to stabilizing the Taliban’ southern heartland.
Sedwill said that Taliban attacks like those in Kabul and in the south have not delayed the Kandahar operation or any of NATO’s key goals over the next few months.
“The overall campaign is on track,” Sedwill said. He stressed that the Kandahar operation will not be a quick-strike offensive like this past winter’s push into the town of Marjah in neighboring Helmand province. Since the Taliban is not in complete control of Kandahar city and its surrounding villages, the first stage of the mission is meetings with local leaders. Then NATO forces expect to launch a series of operations over weeks or months to establish security, he said.
“Although we will have more difficult days like yesterday, I believe that by the end of this year we will be able to demonstrate that we have the initiative and the momentum is with us,” Sedwill said.
The last major assault in Kabul occurred on Feb. 26 when suicide attackers struck at two residential hotels, killing six Indians and 10 Afghans.
Afghan authorities blamed the February attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant group that India blames for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks that killed 166 people. Police stepped up arrests following the assault and said they had caught a number of would-be suicide bombers.
Also Wednesday, Afghan and NATO aircraft continued the search for an Afghan commercial airliner which disappeared Monday on a flight from Kunduz to Kabul with 44 people on board, including three British citizens and an American. Air traffic controllers lost track of the Antonov-24, operated by Pamir Airways, when it was about 55 miles (85 kilometers) north of Kabul.