2 US Marines killed in base attack in Afghanistan

(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.

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.


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