Explosions, gunfire heard around Kabul international airport
Source: Reuters
KABUL | Sun Jun 9, 2013 8:42pm EDT
(Reuters) - Explosions were heard by Reuters witnesses and there were reports of gunfire near Afghanistan's main international airport in the capital, Kabul, early on Monday, and a police spokesman said insurgents had launched an attack.
The attack on the airport - which is also home to a large NATO-led military base - began shortly before 5 a.m. (0030 GMT), Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said. Explosions could still be heard several minutes after the attack began.
(Reporting by Dylan Welch; Editing by Paul Tait)
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/10/us-afghanistan-attack-airport-idUSBRE95900P20130610
newmember
(805 posts)The difference over there should be we have plenty of air support close by.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Maybe someone didn't get the memo...
Hubert Flottz
(37,726 posts)He'd make a great republican.
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)And we're blessed to have so many of our shrapnel absorbers there to keep us safe here on the homeland turf. I'm betting our decade plus of pouring our kids and cash into this stone-age hell hole will at least guarantee us a more consistant flow of Heroin. HOPEFULLY...... we'll be able to keep sending Karzi pallet-loads of freshly printed Benjis for them to line their personal bank accounts with.
You really have to ask yourself: Which country - the USA or Afghanistan - is - collectively speaking - the dumbest? I think we're in first place!
undeterred
(34,658 posts)(Reuters) - Insurgents launched a pre-dawn attack on Afghanistan's main international airport in the capital, Kabul, on Monday, police said, with explosions and gunfire heard coming from an area that also houses major foreign military bases. There were no immediate reports of casualties and there was also no early claim of responsibility for the attack.
Attacks on the heavily guarded airport, used by civilians and the military, are relatively rare and would represent an ambitious target for insurgents, with recent assaults staged against less well-protected targets. The airport, by comparison, is home to a major operational base for NATO-led forces that have been fighting Taliban and other insurgents for 12 years and is bristling with soldiers and police, guard towers and several lines of security checkpoints.
Police said the attack appeared to be centered on the military side of the airport, to the west of the civilian terminal.
"Gunmen have entered a house under construction in the west of Kabul airport and are fighting with security forces," Kabul police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanekzai said. "Their target is Kabul airport and all roads to it are sealed," he said.
A spokesman for the Afghan Air Force, which is also based at the facility, also said the airport was the target of the attack. There are also a number of logistics bases in the area.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/10/us-afghanistan-attack-airport-idUSBRE95900P20130610
undeterred
(34,658 posts)KABUL, Afghanistan: At least five heavily armed insurgents were engaged in an hours-long gunbattle with security forces on the perimeter of Afghanistan's main airport Monday after they tried to attack Nato's airport headquarters with rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and at least one large bomb, the army and police said.
The airport was closed to all civilian air traffic because of the attack, an airport official said. It was unclear if the attack had damaged facilities inside the airport itself.
Kabul police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said at least two insurgents had been killed so far. There were no casualties among police or civilians, he added.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack saying the insurgents were targeting Nato.
It was the latest in a series of attacks against the capital since the start of the year. Taliban insurgents have launched intense attacks across the country as Afghan forces take over most security responsibility ahead of most foreign troops' withdrawal next year, more than a decade after the American-led invasion to oust the Taliban regime for sheltering al-Qaeda's leadership after the Islamic extremist group launched the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
http://beta.dawn.com/news/1017215/taliban-claim-kabul-attack-say-military-airport-is-target