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Taliban Forces Kill 10 French Soldiers and Raid 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 an American military base on Monday 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 Tuesday.
Three American soldiers were wounded and six members of the Afghan special forces 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, 10 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 is a sharp escalation in insurgent operations in what is already Afghanistan’s deadliest year since the American invasion 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 operations employing multiple attackers and different types of weapons systems, NATO officials say.
Before the attack on Monday, 173 foreign soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan this year, including 99 American troops 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 Khost Province 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 on Monday 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 that 15 suicide bombers, equipped with machine guns and vests packed with explosives, with 30 militants backing them up, attacked the base, one of the largest foreign military bases in Afghanistan. He claimed that some of the bombers had gotten inside the base and had killed a number of American soldiers and destroyed equipment and helicopters. This last claim was denied by General Azimi of the Afghan military.
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, General 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 rage through much of the night, until 7 a.m., said Arsala Jamal, the provincial governor of Khost. American 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.
The fighting in the district of Sarobi, east of the capital, Kabul, on Monday night involved an unusually large insurgent force and resulted in even heavier casualties. Ten French soldiers were killed and 21 wounded, a statement issued by the NATO force in Kabul said. It was the most deadly fighting for foreign troops in Afghanistan since 2005.
French troops have only recently taken over from American forces in the area, as part of the expanded French deployment in Afghanistan under President Nicolas Sarkozy.
In response to the attack, the French president announced that he would fly to Kabul on Tuesday. “In its fight against terrorism, France has been dealt a harsh blow,” Mr. Sarkozy said in a statement. “My determination is intact. France is resolved to pursue the struggle against terrorism, for democracy, and freedom.”
The NATO statement said fighting began late afternoon Monday and continued into Tuesday. “The initial patrol was reinforced with quick-reaction forces, close air support, and mobile medical teams,” it said. “During the engagement a large number of insurgents were killed.”
There has been a growing insurgency problem in the Tagab valley and adjoining district of Sarobi in recent months, mostly thought to be instigated by fighters loyal to the renegade mujahedeen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is allied to the Taliban but not part of the movement. The chief of Sarobi district, Qazi Suleiman, said the fighting occurred in Sarkondi, about 10 miles from the town of Sarobi. He said Taliban and Mr. Hekmatyar’s Hesbe-Islami fighters were active in the area.
Mr. Hekmatyar, who NATO officials say is based in Pakistan, has increased his militant activity in the northeast of Afghanistan at a time when the Taliban, foreign fighters and Al Qaeda have accelerated their attacks in the southeast and south of the country.
General Azimi, the Afghan military spokesman, said an estimated 27 Taliban had been killed in the clash in Uzbin, in Sarobi district. Thirteen insurgents were confirmed dead and were found on the battlefield, and included a Pakistani fighter, he said.
The attack began with an ambush on an Afghan Army unit on Monday afternoon that wounded two Afghan soldiers. French troops then moved into the area at 5 p.m., General Azimi said. Two companies of the Afghan National Army were sent in at dawn to assist the French, General Azimi said. Subscribe=>
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