Insurgents Attack NATO Bases in Afghanistan
VOA News Saturday, August 28th, 2010
Afghan and NATO officials say insurgents have carried out pre-dawn attacks on two NATO bases in the eastern province of Khost.
Officials say Saturday’s raids targeted NATO’s Forward Operating Base Salerno and the nearby Chapman base, where seven U.S. intelligence agents were killed in a suicide bombing last December.
A Taliban spokesman says the militant group attacked with
In another development, NATO says its forces mistakenly killed two private security contractors in an incident Friday in the central province of Wardak.
NATO says a coalition vehicle had just come under fire from insurgents when the contractors’ car approached the patrol at high speed, which NATO troops saw as a threat.
NATO says personnel saw a man shooting out of the approaching car and fired on it, killing two occupants.
NATO says coalition forces later discovered the two people killed in the car were contractors. It says the contractors apparently had been returning fire against the same insurgents who attacked the NATO patrol and had been increasing their speed to break contact.
NATO says it is investigating the incident.
NATO also is investigating allegations that Afghan civilians were killed in a NATO air strike Thursday against insurgents who attacked a NATO military post in the eastern province of Kunar.
In violence Friday, NATO said roadside bombs killed three U.S. soldiers – two in eastern Afghanistan and one in the south.
Elsewhere, NATO says about 300 Afghans held a peaceful demonstration against the Taliban Friday in the Andar district of the central province of Ghazni. It says a village elder told coalition forces that residents were protesting a Taliban attack on their village Thursday.
Some information in this story was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.