Rockets Hit US Base in Afghanistan, 2 Troops Dead

A rare rocket attack on the main U.S. base in Afghanistan early Sunday killed two U.S. troops and wounded six other Americans, including two civilians, officials said.

U.S Marine 1st Lt Brendan Mahoney from Redmond, WA and of the 2nd MEB, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines...

U.S Marine 1st Lt Brendan Mahoney from Redmond, WA and of the 2nd MEB, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines conducts a search with his squad during a battle against Taliban fighters near Now Zad in Afghanistan's Helmand province Saturday, June 20, 2009. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

(AP)

Bagram Air Base, which lies 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Kabul, is surrounded by high mountains and long stretches of desert from which militants could fire rockets. But such attacks, particularly lethal ones, are relatively rare.

Two U.S. troops died and six Americans were wounded, including four military personnel and two civilians, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

The top government official in Bagram, Kabir Ahmad, said several rockets were fired at the base early Sunday. A spokesman with NATO's International Security Assistance Force said that three rounds landed inside Bagram and one landed outside. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't the office's top spokesman.

The wounded personnel were taken to the main hospital on Bagram for treatment. ISAF said it wasn't known if any Afghan civilians living near the base were harmed in the attack.

It wasn't immediately clear if New York Times reporter David S. Rohde was at Bagram on Sunday when the rockets hit.

Rohde escaped from kidnappers in Pakistan on Friday after more than seven months in captivity and was flown to Bagram on Saturday. Embassy officials then gave him an emergency passport and FBI officials were guarding him, a U.S. official said Sunday on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. Mujahid also said the Taliban had no involvement in the kidnapping of Rohde and didn't know anything about his escape.

In February 2007, a suicide bomb attack outside Bagram killed 23 people while then-Vice President Dick Cheney was at the base. The attacker never tried to penetrate even the first of several U.S.-manned security checkpoints, instead detonating his explosives among a group of Afghan workers outside the base. The Taliban claimed responsibility.