Taliban Attack Largest US Base in Afghanistan
VOA News 03 August 2010
Taliban militants have attacked the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan.
Officials say the militants first launched rockets on the Kandahar airfield in southern Afghanistan Tuesday. They say insurgents wearing suicide vests then tried to storm the base.
The assault sparked an hour-long gun battle, but the attackers did not breach the perimeter.
Afghan officials say an international soldier was wounded in the attack. They say several of the attackers were killed in the fighting.
Taliban insurgents previously tried to storm the Kandahar base in May.
Meanwhile, Afghan police say robbers killed six security guards at a branch of the Kabul Bank in the northern province of Balkh.
Police say the robbers poisoned and fatally stabbed the guards at the bank in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, before stealing at least $275,000.
In other violence Tuesday, NATO said foreign and Afghan forces destroyed a house rigged with wire links to home-made explosives in Kandahar.
Meanwhile, French Defense Minister Herve Morin said French troops have no other solution but to remain in Afghanistan.
In an interview Tuesday, Morin said if international forces, including the 3,500-strong French contingent, pull out of Afghanistan, the country would collapse.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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