<

Rockets Fired at Base in Afghanistan
Monday, August 5, 2002
The Macon Telegraph

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- MT
Two rockets were fired at a U.S. special forces base in southeastern Afghanistan over the weekend but there were no casualties, a military spokeswoman said Monday.

The rockets fired Saturday night landed 400 yards from the U.S. camp near Lwara in Paktika province, about 90 miles south of Kabul, said Lt. Col. Carla Sylvester at the U.S. military headquarters in Bagram.

U.S. troops fired 60 rounds of high explosives and 50 rounds of white phosphorous after mortar illumination rounds revealed people on a nearby ridge, Sylvester said.

A patrol at the site on Sunday found and destroyed one unexploded 117 mm rocket. They also discovered clothing, base plates for rockets, shipment plugs used to stabilize a rocket warhead while it is being transported, and several bloodstains, Sylvester said.

"They followed the blood trail but did not find remains or bodies," she said.

Another patrol in the same region near the Pakistani border found a cache of 34 122 mm rockets, which were destroyed in place, Sylvester said.
(The Macon Telegraph News Source)
2002 © The Macon Telegraph.

Dan