Taliban fire rockets into main US base KABUL: A roadside bomb blew up next to a minibus at a crowded intersection on a major highway in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 14 civilians, officials said. The blast struck the minibus in the Lashkar Gah-Sangin district in Helmand province on the main road running from the city of Kandahar to Herat, said Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Helmand governor's office. He said four others were wounded in the blast and that the dead included women and children. The bus was transporting people to a local bazaar, said Ghulam Haidar, who arrived at the scene after learning that two of his brothers had been killed. “There was a huge blast body parts were scattered far away” from the bus, he said. Meanwhile, in an attack on one of the few calm provinces, the Taliban fired two rockets into Bagram Air Field, the main US base in Afghanistan. Master Sgt. Jason Haag, a NATO spokesman in Kabul, said “two rounds of indirect fire” hit Bagram. Sher Mohammed Maldani, police chief for Parwan province where the base is located, said there were no reported casualties. He said the insurgents fired and fled the scene, describing them as being like “thieves in the night.” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said by telephone that the insurgents shot two rockets into the base, about 35 miles northeast of Kabul. He claimed coalition forces sustained injuries, but offered no evidence to back up that statement. Attacks on Bagram are infrequent. But on May 19, dozens of Taliban fighters launched a fierce ground assault that led to an American contractor being killed in a more than eight-hour firefight. A month later, the base came under rocket attack but there were no injuries.
