Bagram airbase hit; 2 dead

[Devin]

Rockets Hit US Base in Afghanistan, 2 Troops Dead

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer Jason Straziuso – June 21, 2009

KABUL – A rare rocket attack on the main U.S. base in Afghanistan early Sunday killed two U.S. troops and wounded six other Americans, including two civilians, officials said.

Bagram Air Base, which lies 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Kabul, is surrounded by high mountains and long stretches of desert from which militants could fire rockets. But such attacks, particularly lethal ones, are relatively rare.

Two U.S. troops died and six Americans were wounded, including four military personnel and two civilians, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvWEqwq3CrRvaQCmt21MfoYhjZJQD98V4RQ82

 

[tigerbob]

Is it the policy of the State Department / U.S. Military to contact the families of the deceased / injured before such stories are released to the press? Hope so. If not, it's quite probably going to be a really crappy Fathers Day for several hundred families.

 

[Devin]

Baghram rocket attack kills 2 US troops - Los Angeles Times

"The attack came just hours after military spokesmen on Saturday announced three U.S.
combat deaths – two National Guard soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar Friday
and a U.S. soldier killed by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan Saturday.

The Soviet-era Bagram base, which includes an airfield with several runways, is busy 24
hours a day. Day and night, thousands of U.S. and NATO soldiers – along with thousands
more civilian contractors from several nations – can be seen walking the streets, shopping,
eating at fast food outlets or sipping coffee at an all-night coffee shop.

The Afghan residential areas around the base are relatively secure, and rocket or mortar
attacks inside the vast Bagram compound are rare."

 

[Devin]

This is bad.
I know people who go in and out of there all the time.
Had a relative stationed there twice, on two tours.
It was a bit safer a few years ago, safer than Iraq before
Iraq took over as the killing fields. Now Afghaniland will return as
the nightmare.

 

[editec]

Damn.

Afghanistan is where empires go to die, folks.

 

[Gunny]

Rockets Hit US Base in Afghanistan, 2 Troops Dead

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer Jason Straziuso – June 21, 2009

KABUL – A rare rocket attack on the main U.S. base in Afghanistan early Sunday killed two U.S. troops and wounded six other Americans, including two civilians, officials said.

Bagram Air Base, which lies 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Kabul, is surrounded by high mountains and long stretches of desert from which militants could fire rockets. But such attacks, particularly lethal ones, are relatively rare.

Two U.S. troops died and six Americans were wounded, including four military personnel and two civilians, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

The top government official in Bagram, Kabir Ahmad, said several rockets were fired at the base early Sunday. A spokesman with NATO's International Security Assistance Force said that three rounds landed inside Bagram and one landed outside. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't the office's top spokesman.

The wounded personnel were taken to the main hospital on Bagram for treatment. ISAF said it wasn't known if any Afghan civilians living near the base were harmed in the attack.

It wasn't immediately clear if New York Times reporter David S. Rohde was at Bagram on Sunday when the rockets hit.

Rohde escaped from kidnappers in Pakistan on Friday after more than seven months in captivity and was flown to Bagram on Saturday. Embassy officials then gave him an emergency passport and FBI officials were watching him, a U.S. official said Sunday on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. Mujahid also said the Taliban had no involvement in the kidnapping of Rohde and didn't know anything about his escape.

In February 2007, a suicide bomb attack outside Bagram killed 23 people while then-Vice President Dick Cheney was at the base. The attacker never tried to penetrate even the first of several U.S.-manned security checkpoints, instead detonating his explosives among a group of Afghan workers outside the base. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Bagram is a sprawling Soviet-era base that houses thousands of troops, mostly from the 82nd Airborne Division. Most forces there are American, but many other countries also have troops at the base.

Activity at Bagram is high 24 hours a day, with jets and helicopters taking off at all hours. The base has expanded greatly the last several years and sits next to many houses and the village of Bagram itself.

The two deaths bring to at least 80 the number of U.S. forces killed in Afghanistan this year, a record pace. Last year 151 troops died in Afghanistan. >>>MORE>>>

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