Rockets fired at U.S. Afghan bases

Reuters | September 16, 2002

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PARACHINAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft were scrambled after at least ten rockets were fired at airfields near the city of Khost in the southeastern Afghanistan that are bases for hundreds of American troops, officials have said.

The firing started at the city's old and new airfields at 11 p.m. on Sunday and continued intermittently until dawn on Monday said Asmat Gul, the head of intelligence in the city.

He said the rockets had missed their targets, but it was unclear if there had been any casualties.

U.S. helicopters and planes were scrambled shortly after the attacks.

According to local residents, about U.S. 1,000 troops are stationed at the new Khost air field and hundreds at the other.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press quoted Khost residents as saying the attacks were heaviest to date on the bases, which have come under intermittent but ineffectual rocket fire in the past.

The agency quoted a Khost resident as saying it was unclear whether the rockets -- which were fired from the north -- fell inside the bases or not.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.

About 40 American soldiers have been killed in combat and non-combat incidents and 341 wounded since the U.S. operation in Afghanistan began last year.

U.S. forces are hunting for remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and for fighters from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.