Militants Besiege U.S. Base

KABUL, Afghanistan – Taliban insurgents mounted their most serious attacks in six years of fighting, one a complex attack with multiple suicide bombers on a U.S. military base last night and another by some 100 insurgents on French forces in a district east of the capital, killing 10 French soldiers and wounding 21 others, military officials said today.

Three American soldiers and six members of the Afghan special forces were wounded in the attack on the base in the eastern province of Khost, bordering Pakistan, the Afghan military spokesman, Gen. Zaher Azimi, said. The battle lasted all night. Ten suicide bombers were killed or blew themselves up, and the insurgents were repulsed without entering the base, he said.

The heavy fighting in the two places marks a sharp escalation in insurgent operations in what is already Afghanistan’s deadliest year since the United States’ intervention in 2001. Insurgents have increased their use of roadside bombs and suicide bombs but have also shown a growing sophistication with several well-organized, complex attacks employing multiple attackers and different types of weapons systems, NATO officials said.

Before the attack yesterday, 173 foreign soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan this year, including 99 American soldiers and 74 from other nations. The number shows an increase in the rate of killings over 2007, when the total for the year was 232, the highest number since the war began in 2001.

The attack on Camp Salerno in the province of Khost was one of the most complex attacks seen so far in Afghanistan, with multiple suicide bombers and a backup fighting force that tried to breach defenses on to the airport at the base. It followed a suicide car bombing at the outer entrance to the same base yesterday morning, which killed 12 Afghan workers lining up to enter the base, and another attempted bombing that was thwarted shortly after.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for all three attacks in Khost. Their spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, reached by telephone at an unknown location, said 15 suicide bombers, equipped with machine guns and vests packed with explosives, with 30 militants backing them up, attacked the base last night because it was one of the largest foreign military bases in Afghanistan. He claimed some of the bombers got inside the base and had killed a number of U.S. soldiers and destroyed equipment and helicopters. This last claim was denied by Azimi.

The insurgents began attacking with rockets and mortars at 11 p.m., and a group of 13 suicide bombers began to move toward the airport side of the base.

An Afghan commando unit encircled them and engaged them in furious fighting, Azimi said. Thirteen militants were killed, including 10 who were wearing suicide vests, he said.

"This was a major group of terrorists in suicide bomber form, an attack on the coalition forces base, and it was a major operation of the Afghan National Army commandos, who succeeded in eliminating 10 suicide bombers before they could do anything," he said at a news briefing at the Ministry of Defense in Kabul.

The battle lasted until 7 a.m., said Arsala Jamal, the provincial governor of Khost. U.S. helicopter strikes against the militants, who were moving through a cornfield around the base, also struck a house in a village, killing two children and wounding two women and two men, said the provincial police chief, Abdul Qayum Baqizoy.

Originally published by The New York Times.

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