Taliban gunmen armed with rockets and grenades attacked the largest NATO base in Afghanistan at dawn Wednesday, sparking hours of clashes that killed 11 militants and wounded nine soldiers.
The audacious assault on Bagram Airfield came one day after a suicide car bomber killed five U.S. soldiers, a Canadian colonel and 12 Afghans in Kabul, highlighting the relentless pace of the nearly nine-year insurgency.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, charging that 20 suicide bombers took part in the assault. The militia is known to exaggerate its claims and there was no other confirmation that suicide attackers were involved.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the ongoing attack on Bagram "included rockets, small arms and grenades."
Major Virginia McCabe, a press officer at Bagram, described the attack as "very sporadic" and said insurgents had not been able to penetrate the giant base. She could not confirm whether they had worn suicide vests.
"It is now very, very sporadic. There are only a few gunshots," she said, six hours after the attack began.
"Eleven Talibans have been killed and nine ISAF soldiers were wounded", said McCabe.
"They targeted a gate but couldn’t enter…. Soldiers’ response was pretty quick," she said.
Biggest NATO base
Around 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of Kabul, Bagram is run primarily by the U.S. military and is the biggest NATO base in the country.
With connecting flights across Afghanistan and abroad, the airfield is a transit hub for much of the 130,000-strong U.S.-led NATO force, which is being boosted to 150,000 by August to step up the fight against the Taliban.
The group of insurgents launched their attack at dawn, according to witnesses in Nawdeh village next to Bagram airfield who said they were forced awake by U.S. military helicopters and the sounds of gunfire.
"It was around 4:00 or 4:30 am," said Zemarai Malikzada, in his 30s.
"I saw American helicopters flying overhead, they were firing down and the terrorists were firing at them from there," he said pointing to vineyards.
Ahmad Jawad, a farmer who sets out for work before the sun rises and the temperatures climb, said he saw a man wearing a suicide vest.
"I saw one of them. I went towards him. He showed me his bombs on his chest. I ran away. He ran towards those vineyards."
"Police and the Americans followed him then he exploded, right in there," he said, pointing to a vine about 80 yards from the paved road.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location that: "Four suicide bombers activated their explosive belts and fighting is continuing at the base."
Notoriety
Bagram has acquired notoriety across Afghanistan and the Muslim world as the location of a U.S.-run prison that the military opened following the U.S.-led invasion that brought down the Taliban regime in late 2001.
The entrance to the base was last hit by a double attack in March 2009 that wounded three civilians.
On a busy day, the air terminal at Bagram, with connecting flights across Afghanistan and abroad, processes around 1,650 passengers.
In addition to troops, there are around 5,000 civilians on the 2,100-hectare (5,190-acre) compound, working for companies contracted by the military.
At least 210 NATO soldiers, 130 of them from the United States, have died in the war so far this year. It has been the deadliest January to May period since the U.S.-led invasion.
On Tuesday, eight NATO soldiers were killed — six of them in a suicide car bomb attack in the capital Kabul, which the Taliban claimed responsibility for.
Taliban have increased attacks over the past 12 months in Afghanistan’s heavily guarded capital, but strikes on NATO military bases are much rarer.
The militia threatened a new nationwide campaign of attacks from May 10 targeting diplomats, members of the Afghan parliament, foreign contractors and the international military force.