Marines among those hurt in Bagram attack - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Marines among those hurt in Bagram attack

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Several Marines assigned to the Corps’ Afghanistan-based EA-6B Prowler squadron were among the nine U.S. service members wounded Wednesday during a deadly five-hour attack at Bagram Airfield, officials said.

The Marines, assigned to Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 2 out of Cherry Point, N.C., used M16 service rifles to ward off insurgents trying to access the base, said Maj. Adam Musoff, the aviation electronic warfare systems coordinator at the Pentagon. It’s unclear how many were wounded and what type of injuries they sustained, he said. Their names and ranks have not been released.

One U.S. contractor and 16 insurgents were killed in the attack, said Maj. Virginia McCabe, spokeswoman for Combined Joint Task Force 82, which is headquartered here.

“This is probably the most extensive fighting that most aviation squadrons have seen from their main forward operating base,” Musoff said. “It just goes to show that no matter what your military occupational specialty is, you are always a rifleman first and foremost.”

In what Army Lt. Col. Clarence Counts, another spokesman for CJTF-82, described as the most significant attack on Bagram “in months,” insurgents attacked the base’s two main entrances starting at about 3:30 a.m. with a combination of rockets, hand grenades and small arms. Four dead insurgents were wearing suicide vests, but the men were killed prior to detonating them, Counts said. Four insurgents also were wearing military fatigues with an Army Combat Uniform-type pattern, although it’s not clear if they were the same insurgents wearing the vests, McCabe said. It’s also not clear where the Marines were operating at the time of the attack, Musoff said.

The base was on a heightened alert status for several hours after the attack, with troops in full body armor ordered into sandbagged bunkers. Air Force personnel patrolling the main street through the base said a number of insurgents had gained access to the base and had not been found, but Counts said there was no truth to that rumor.

“There’s no indications that any enemy breached the wire,” he said. However, he said in remarks to reporters here shortly after noon, “We don’t know if there is any other enemy outside the wire; as of about half an hour ago, there was still some sporadic fire outside BAF [Bagram Airfield].”

Counts described the assault on the installation as “a complex attack” that targeted several entrances to the base. “We had people actually trying to breach the fence to get in,” he said, adding that some insurgents were equipped with wire cutters.

The insurgents chose the right time to attack the base, Counts said. “That time in the morning, if somebody’s trying to sneak up, that’s probably the best opportunity to do it,” he said.

Indications are that the attackers approached the base on foot, according to Counts. He noted that Parwan village was located just outside the installation. “It’s not like there’s some standoff distance,” he said. “You’ve got people walking outside the gate every day, all the time.”

The assault began with a rocket attack that “slightly damaged” one building on the base, Counts said. The insurgents then seemed to target the guard towers at the entrances to the base with small arms fire and grenades, he said. Most U.S. casualties were personnel manning the towers, he added.

“All of the enemy were killed outside the gates,” and no insurgents were captured during the fight, Counts said.

The attack lasted more than five hours, with the last significant action occurring at about 9 a.m., after which “there were no more people trying to come up or explosions or anything like that, throwing grenades,” Counts said. “About an hour or so after that there was still some sporadic firing. ... But I really can’t say there were still trying to attack at that point.”

Coalition forces remained on alert for further attacks, Counts said. “We don’t know if this is completely done, or if that was like the first wave or something and they’re trying to probe and assess and do something else,” he said.

Although AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were launched in response to the attack, small arms fire seems to have accounted for the insurgents confirmed killed as well as all the U.S. military wounded, Counts said. The contractor who was killed was shot outside the base perimeter, said Counts, who declined to give out further details on the circumstances of the contractor’s death.

In his noon press conference, Counts did not mention the death, which was first announced in a mid-afternoon CJTF-82 press release. The military withheld the contractor’s name pending next of kin notification.

The insurgent casualties had been confirmed by “people actually on the ground, seeing the bodies,” Counts said.

Of the nine wounded U.S. troops, two returned to duty shortly thereafter, while “the other ones had to actually go to the hospital to get some treatment,” Counts said. The same CJTF-82 press release that announced the contractor’s death said all those who required further treatment were in stable condition.

Counts indicated that the attack was aimed at the two most heavily used entrances to the base. “There’s a lot of entrances to come on BAF, but the ones people are familiar with, those two were attacked,” Counts said.

Perimeter security here is mostly the responsibility of the Air Force’s 455th Air Expeditionary Wing, he said. However, he said that did not necessarily mean that the nine U.S. wounded personnel were from the 455th. “It’s a team effort,” he said. “You’ve got mixtures of units and personnel.”

About 18,000 people live and work at the airfield, the largest population of any coalition base in Afghanistan, Counts said.

The attack shut down routine flights at the base for “a couple of hours” and interrupted other normal operations well into the afternoon. Traffic was restricted, dining facilities and the post exchange were closed and public affairs officials barred reporters staying at the base’s media support center from walking anywhere beyond their immediate surroundings without an escort.

Counts declined to estimate how many insurgents took part in the attack, beyond saying “over a dozen.”

CNN reported Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that 20 armed men wearing suicide vests had stormed the base, with four detonating their explosives at the entrances to allow the others to move in. A “major firefight” then took place inside the base, Mujahid told CNN. Reporters living here saw and heard no evidence of any such firefight.

“Though it is clear the enemy intended a spectacular event here at BAF, they were unable to breach the perimeter and unable to detonate their suicide vests,” Counts said. “The quick defensive reaction by the Bagram security forces likely saved a lot of lives.”

The attack was the most serious assault on the base this year. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and at least six other personnel wounded in a June 21, 2009, rocket attack, while three civilian workers died in a car bomb attack just outside the base on March 4, 2009. A February 27, 2007 attack at one of the base’s main gates, which coincided with a visit by then-Vice President Cheney, killed 23 people, including a U.S. soldier, a U.S. contractor, a South Korean soldier and 20 local workers at the base.

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Staff writer Amy McCullough contributed to this report from Washington.

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