U.S. fends off Kandahar attack

Associated Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Gunmen came within 50 yards of U.S. positions in an apparently well-organized attack on the main American base in southern Afghanistan that left two soldiers slightly injured, an Army spokesman said Thursday.

The attack Wednesday night sparked a 15- to 20-minute firefight, with U.S. troops shooting back with machine guns, dispatching helicopter gunships and sending up flares. It was the most intense attack on the heavily guarded airfield at Kandahar since Jan. 10, when gunmen opened fire as a transport plane carrying 20 al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners took off for the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In Kandahar, flares were again fired from U.S. positions late Thursday after troops spotted a vehicle with three passengers about a mile southwest of the airfield, Army spokesman Maj. A.C. Roper said. Two other people were seen near the vehicle. One flare started a large fire near the perimeter.

"Nobody was caught and no shots were fired," said Roper. "I can’t say there is any connection between the vehicles seen tonight and the ones observed yesterday."

The two soldiers slightly injured Wednesday were both back on duty Thursday, said Maj. Ralph Mills, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command in Florida. One suffered a slight wound in the hand and the other was grazed in the neck by a bullet, Mills said.

Capt. Tony Rivers, quoting troops on forward positions, said the attackers came within 50 yards of the U.S. defense lines "and appeared well organized."

The identity and number of attackers was unknown. U.S. soldiers detained seven people who turned out to be part of a U.S.-backed Afghan security force that helps protect the airfield. They were released.

"The perimeter was never in danger of being breached," said Roper. The base houses more than 4,100 troops and al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners.

In other developments Thursday: