Afghanistan — Officials Provide More Details on Bagram Attack

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 21, 2010 — Mil­i­tary offi­cials pro­vid­ed more details today on the May 19 attack here that killed a U.S. con­trac­tor and wound­ed sev­er­al ser­vice­mem­bers.

Six­teen insur­gents were killed and five were detained after an esti­mat­ed 30 to 40 mil­i­tants launched an attack on the airfield’s out­er perime­ter dur­ing the ear­ly morn­ing hours. Dur­ing the attack, coali­tion forces and Afghan police respond­ed imme­di­ate­ly, main­tain­ing secu­ri­ty on the air­field and block­ing the insur­gents’ abil­i­ty to com­plete­ly breach the base’s perime­ter, offi­cials said. 

Mean­while, Army heli­copters pro­vid­ing aer­i­al secu­ri­ty dur­ing the attack engaged mul­ti­ple insur­gents out­side the airfield. 

Coali­tion forces killed four intend­ed sui­cide bombers dressed in U.S. mil­i­tary-style uni­forms before they could det­o­nate them­selves. An ene­my mor­tar pit set up out­side the perime­ter was destroyed. 

Fol­low­ing the attack, Afghan police and coali­tion forces detained five sus­pect­ed mil­i­tants after per­form­ing a pres­ence-and-secu­ri­ty patrol in a near­by village. 

Three of the wound­ed ser­vice­mem­bers were returned to duty, offi­cials said, while all oth­ers were in sta­ble con­di­tion. The name of the con­trac­tor killed in the attack is being with­held pend­ing next-of-kin notification. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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