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15 Die as Afghan Army Clashes With Attackers
Wednesday, August 7, 2002
(11:47 AM ET)
The Associated Press

None of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan was known to have been involved in the Kabul battle, although unidentified Americans in civilian clothes were later seen inspecting the site.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- AP
Attackers struck an Afghan army base on Wednesday in southern Kabul, and 15 people were killed, including 11 guerrillas, authorities reported.

The base commander claimed the attackers were Arabs and Pakistanis, but that could not be confirmed.

It was the most serious battle in the capital in months, and came just a day after U.S. troops killed four men who reportedly opened fire on them in Kunar province, 90 miles to the northeast.

The two incidents, and another involving U.S. troops on Monday, represented an upsurge in violence during a relatively quiet period eight months after the fall of Afghanistan's Taliban government.

The attack on the Kabul army garrison began about 7 a.m. when the guerrillas, armed with AK-47 semiautomatic rifles, rushed the post in the Bagram-i District, about six miles south of the center of the capital, said the local police commander, Col. Haji Rashid.

Soldiers fought back mainly with rocket-propelled grenades, he said. The base commander, Bismullah Khan, told The Associated Press that in a three-hour battle his men pursued the attackers as they retreated to a nearby mountain, surrounded them and killed 11.
(More: The New York Times News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan