Taliban attack NATO base in Kabul; Koran protests spread

By Joshua Partlow and Javed Hamdard,
WashPost
Saturday, April , 6:20 AM

KABUL--Taliban fighters attacked the gate of a large NATO military base on the outskirts of Kabul on Saturday morning but failed to do serious damage or breach the compound walls, according to NATO and Afghan officials.

About six insurgents, including at least two disguised in burqas, the full-body covering common among Afghan women, attacked Camp Phoenix at about 6:30 a.m. using Kalashnikovs and explosives, according to Afghan and NATO officials. Three NATO service members suffered minor injuries.

The violence came on a day when protests over the burning of a Koran by a fringe Florida preacher spread to other Afghan cities, including Kandahar, where at least five people have been killed and dozens more wounded in street fighting, according to Afghan police and public health officials.

A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, Maj. Michael Johnson, said that there was “absolutely no indication” that the attack on Camp Phoenix, used by the American military, was related to the Koran burning protests.

(More here.)