Khost, Afghanistan: Foreign and Afghan troops killed 24 insurgents as they fought off pre-dawn attacks on two bases in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, officials said, with the Taliban saying suicide bombers were among the attackers.
The attacks targeted the US military's Forward Operating Base Chapman and nearby Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost province near the eastern border with Pakistan, where US and other foreign forces have been stepping up operations against a resurgent Taliban.
Seven Central Intelligence Agency officers were killed by a suicide bomber inside Chapman last December, the second-most deadly attack in CIA history. Despite the presence of almost 150,000 foreign troops, violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted by US-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.
Brazen attacks
Taliban-led insurgents have launched increasingly brazen attacks around Afghanistan in a bid to topple the government and force out foreign troops. More than 2,000 foreign troops have been killed, most of them Americans, since the conflict began.
Hundreds of civilians have also been caught in the crossfire, with civilian deaths up by 31 per cent in the first six months of this year, according to a United Nations report.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said air support was called in after the bases came under attack by small-arms fire, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades at about 4am (3.30 am UAE time). Isaf said in a statement yesterday that about 15 insurgents were killed at Salerno and another six at Chapman. Two insurgents were able to breach the perimeter into Salerno but were killed immediately.
Also, an insurgent from the Al Qaida-linked Haqqani network and two other fighters were killed in an air strike called in when they were seen driving away from the attack, taking the total killed to 24.
Five insurgents were captured and a car bomb and another vehicle carrying ammunition were found near the camps, Isaf said.
