KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — Insurgents launched a brazen ground and rocket attack late Saturday against NATO’s largest military base in southern Afghanistan, wounding several coalition troops, military officials said.
About four rockets crashed down about 8 p.m. on the Kandahar Air Field, one of them exploding near a popular coffee shop and causing several casualties, officials said.
In an apparently coordinated strike, a group of insurgents attempted to breach a gate on the north side of the base but was beaten back. At least two insurgents were killed, the officials said.
The number and extent of coalition casualties were not immediately clear.
“The perimeter was not breached,” said Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force.
The assault appeared to be ongoing late Saturday. Attack helicopters were seen blasting positions near the fence with missiles and machine guns.
Several planes that were awaiting takeoff on the runway were evacuated, and officials ordered passengers into bunkers as loudspeakers blared warnings. Some troops who were awaiting flights were dispatched to help fend off possible attackers, while others huddled in the dark to watch the copters’ counterattack.
A security contractor at the base who spoke on the condition of anonymity said he heard about five or six explosions.
One of the rockets, he said, landed near the Green Bean coffee shop on the base’s “boardwalk,” a covered wooden walkway area that includes many restaurants and shops.
“There was a number of casualties. We saw a lot of smoke. It’s a heavily populated area,” the contractor said.
The attack came three days after insurgents assaulted Bagram air base, another massive NATO base, with rockets, grenades and gunfire, killing one U.S. contractor and wounding several others.
It was the third high-profile attack targeting NATO troops in less than a week. One day before the Bagram strike, a suicide bomber blew up a car near a NATO convoy in Kabul, killing five U.S. troops, a Canadian officer and at least a dozen Afghan civilians.
