The Taliban claimed responsibility Sunday for a nighttime assault on NATO's biggest base in southern Afghanistan in which insurgents firing rockets, mortars and automatic weapons tried to storm Kandahar Air Field.
It was the second such attack on a major military installation this week. Several coalition troops and civilian employees were wounded in Saturday night's assault, but there were no reports of deaths, officials said.
Militants unleashed rockets and mortars about 8 p.m. (1530 GMT) and then tried unsuccessfully to storm the northern perimeter, officials said. Artillery and machine-gun fire reverberated through the base, about 300 miles (500 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, for more than three hours afterward.
One of the rockets hit a shop-lined boardwalk where soldiers go in the evening to socialize. A bloodstain could be seen on the walkway outside a T.G.I. Friday's restaurant on the boardwalk Sunday morning, said Maura Axelrod, a reporter with HDNet who was inside the base.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Armada told The Associated Press that its fighters attacked the base from two sides and fired more than 15 rockets.
It was the third major attack on NATO forces in Afghanistan in six days.
By: Brant
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