Camp Bastion fight still underway

LASHKARGAH (Pajhwok): An intense firefight continued between Afghan security forces and militants on Friday, hours after the Taliban launched a group attack on a military base formerly housing British troops in southern Helmand province.

Late on Thursday, the 215^th Maiwand Military Corps said the coordinated attack on Camp Bastion had been repulsed by the Afghan National Army (ANA). The assault was widely condemned by different countries, including the US. 

On Friday, local officials said a confrontation was still ongoing close to the military base. Omar Zwak, the Helmand governor’s spokesman, said six assailants had been killed and three ANA soldiers wounded in the gunbattle.

He confirmed a generator had been burnt but the fighting was about to end. The militants, he said, had stormed the facility from two sides. The skirmish took place when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives before three of his associates tried to force their way into the base.

Simultaneously, another group of insurgents launched an attack from another side of the base, he added. A military official, wishing anonymity, said the fight was still underway.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, asserting responsibility for the attack, said that the assailants were equipped with light and heavy weapons. He claimed a number of aircraft and tanks were destroyed.

Ahmadi said heavy casualties had been inflicted on local and foreign troops. British soldiers vacated Camp Bastion, their last military base, and handed it over to Afghan troops on October 26.

rm/mud

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