US, Canadian troops search for attackers of Kandahar base

Thursday February 14, 8:28 PM AFP

US and Canadian troops were searching for unidentified attackers who fired on soldiers guarding the perimeter of the coalition base in southern Afghanistan.

The incident began around 1515 GMT Wednesday when the assailants fired small arms at US positions on the perimeter of the Kandahar airfield, where more than 4,000 US, Canadian, Norwegian, Jordanian and other troops are based.

US forces responded with illumination flares fired from mortars and five to 10 minutes of machine-gun fire, US Army Major A.C. Roper said Thursday.

Heavily armed troops and two AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were dispatched on a search which netted seven "friendly" Afghans.

"They were held in place for a short moment until they could be positively identified," Roper said.

No troops were injured and no intruders entered the base perimeter, he said. He could not say whether the attackers intended to assault the base or were just probing its defenses.

The battle was the first taste of action for a recently arrived Canadian infantry battalion, part of an 800-strong contingent of troops sent by Ottawa.

Canadian light armored vehicles, called Coyotes, helped search for the intruders, said Lieutenant Colonel Pat Stogran, commander of the Canadian battle group here.

He said morale of his troops "went through the roof" after their first action, even though they did not fire a shot.

In Tampa, Florida, a US Central Command spokesman said three other people were seen leaving the scene in a vehicle, but Roper said that could not be confirmed.

The attack was similar to one on January 10 when assailants probed the base's defenses in an attack that coincided with the first flight from Kandahar carrying prisoners to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Many of the captured Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters are held in a detention facility here.

Another group of 34 suspected al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters arrived late Wednesday at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, bringing the number of detainees there to 288.

While US military officials will not comment on the movement of the captives, the number of prisoners being held in Afghanistan and surrounding areas dropped from 220 to 186 overnight.

Meanwhile, one crew member was injured when a US CH-47 transport helicopter made an emergency landing early Thursday after making contact with the ground about eight miles (12 kilometres) southwest of the base, Roper said.

The landing damaged the helicopter's landing gear and tailgate, he said.

The incident followed a US Air Force MC-130P cargo plane crash Wednesday in a remote region of Afghanistan which injured eight crew members.

It was believed to be the eighth air crash for US forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan since the bombing campaign against the Taliban militia and terror suspect Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda extremist network began on October 7.