KABUL, Afghanistan — Suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a U.S. military base near Afghanistan-Pakistan border in a daring attack on a major American installation, officials said today. Six insurgents detonated their vests after being surrounded.
A U.S. coalition spokesman 1st Lt. Nathan Perry said early today that fighting around the base is still going on. He said there were no American deaths.
The militants failed to gain entry to Camp Salerno in Khost city after launching waves of attacks just before midnight Monday, said Arsallah Jamal, the governor of Khost. The base is just a few miles from Pakistan’s border.
The attack came one day after a suicide bomb outside the same base killed 10 civilians and wounded 13 others.
Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said Afghan soldiers, aided by U.S. troops, chased and surrounded a group of insurgents, and that six militants blew themselves up when cornered. Seven other militants died in those explosions and a rolling gunbattle, he said.
“(The Afghan National Army) is saying that anytime we get close to them, they detonate themselves,” Jamal said.
At least 13 insurgents and two Afghan civilians died in the attack, officials said. Five Afghan soldiers were wounded in the fighting, Azimi said.
The Taliban appeared to confirm the account. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said 15 militants had been dispatched for the attack on Salerno. Seven blew themselves up and eight returned to a Taliban safehouse, he said.
Also, on Monday, the U.S. military announced the identifications of three Marines who died Thursday while supporting combat operations in Helmand province.
Killed were Lance Cpl. Jacob J. Toves, 27, Grover Beach, Calif.; Cpl. Anthony G. Mihalo, 23, Naperville, Ill.; and Lance Cpl. Juan Lopez-Castaneda, 19, Mesa, Ariz.
Toves was assigned to the 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Okinawa, Japan. Mihalo and Lopez-Castaneda were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.
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