Firefight at US Kandahar base; "friendly" Afghan troops detained, then released

Thursday February 14, 7:42 AM

Unidentified assailants fired on a US base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, triggering a firefight and a search that netted seven armed Afghans who turned out to be "friendly" troops contracted to provide security, a US military spokesman said.

US troops detained the armed Afghans in an area outside the base perimeter where the shooting had occurred, said Navy Commander Frank Merriman, a spokesman for the US Central Command.

"In the confusion that resulted from this thing they were initially detained," he said. "Once it was determined who they were, they were released."

The incident began when unidentified assailants fired small arms at US positions on the perimeter of the Kandahar airfield where more than 2,000 troops from the US Army's 101st Airborne Division are based, he said.

US troops responded by firing mortar rounds to illuminate the area and then opened fire with machine guns, he said.

AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships also were sent aloft to search for the assailants, he said.

No significant casualties were reported on either side in the firefight, he said. Two soldiers suffered scrapes and bruises.

"Only small arms fire was used in the attack, and that was not effective," Merriman said. "The perimeter was not penetrated."

The seven people detained by US troops turned out to be members of an Afghan security force that had been contracted to patrol the area outside the base perimeter, Merriman said.

"It was just guys with weapons. Our guys came across guys with weapons, and they detained them until they identified who they were," he said.

Three other people were seen leaving the scene in a vehicle but it was unclear whether they were assailants, he said.

"Right now the situation has been secured and everything is back to normal," he said.

The attack was similar to one 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.

In addition to the airfield, the base includes a detention center that holds most of the 186 al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners in the hands of the US military in Afghanistan.