2 US troops killed in base attack in Afghanistan
CBS
Updated 11:10 PM ET
(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - Pentagon officials tell CBS News than two U.S. service members were killed in an insurgent attack on an Allied air base in southern Afghanistan that has also wounded several other troops. The two killed were reportedly Marines.
An estimated 16 Taliban fighters were also killed in the assault, said Lt. Col. Stewart Upton, a spokesman at Camp Leatherneck, a U.S. Marine based adjacent to the air base, Camp Bastion.
Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, is stationed at the base on a four-month combat tour. "Prince Harry was never in any danger," said Martyn Crighton, a spokesman for the NATO forces in Afghanistan, Reuters reported.
U.S. officials said the attack at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan's Helmand province involved a range of insurgent weaponry, possibly including mortars, rockets or rocket-propelled grenades, as well as small arms fire.
Lt. Col. Stewart Upton, a spokesman at Camp Leatherneck, a U.S. Marine based adjacent to the air base, confirmed the attack and said two coalition service members had been killed but he did not specify their nationalities.
Upton said coalition forces were assessing the extent of the damage and would provide more details later.
Camp Bastion is a British air base and is used by the Marines at Leatherneck.
A number of aircraft at the base also were hit by insurgent fire, another U.S. official said.
Capt. Harry Wales, as the prince is known in the military, is serving a four-month combat deployment as a gunner on an Apache helicopter. Harry, who turns 28 on Saturday, is expected to start flying Apache missions this week. This is his second tour in Afghanistan.
It also was not clear Friday whether the attack was connected at all to the protests and violence across the Muslim world this week that has been linked to an anti-Islamic film. Afghanistan's southern region has been a hotbed of the insurgency and frequent attacks.
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an attack, one more, not surprising when you consider the violence that reigns in this country, Afghanistan lives under the yoke of terrorists and of corrupted regime led by Hamid Karzai, the president who cares little for the misery of his people, nor death that awaits these people every day.
Captain Harry Wales is a soldier, but also and above all a prince, his presence in Afghanistan can be felt by some as a provocation.
"au revoir"