2019 Bagram Airfield attack | |
---|---|
Location | Bagram Airfield |
Date | December 11, 2019 |
Weapons | 1 Garbage Truck and suicide attack |
Deaths | 2 |
Injured | 80 (first attack) 6 (second attack) |
Perpetrator | Taliban |
Defenders | U.S. Army, Georgian Army, U.S. Marine Corps |
In the early morning of December 11, 2019, the Taliban attacked Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, which at the time was controlled by the United States military. The attackers used a VBIED garbage truck with 25,000 Lbs of Home Made Explosives which killed two civilians and injured 80 others. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Taliban insurgents attacked the western part of the base following the explosion. The attack was repelled by a US-led NATO forces. At 5:50 a.m. a 22,500 lb VBIED (Vehicle Borne IED) was detonated at Bagram Airfield abandoned medical facility that was walled off separate from the rest of the base. Six people were wounded from the blast. [5] [6]
Just minutes after the attacks, Marine advisors, U.S. Army Military Police and their Georgian military counterparts responded to the attacks. The Marines and Georgians were in charge of perimeter security for Bagram Airfield Security Forces (BAFSECFOR). The U.S. Army Military Police were in charge of Law Enforcement Operations. At the time of the attack BAFSECFOR was headquartered by the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, and organized as Task Force Cobalt.
Task Force Cobalt pushed more combat power to the site of the initial attack, mainly elements of 1st Platoon, 348th Engineer Company (Route Clearance), focusing on containing Taliban fighters from entering the main portion of the base. Heavy small arms fire and rockets could be heard In the area of the initial car bomb but Taliban fighters were unsuccessful from entering the main portion of the base.
16 hours after the initial attack 2 US F-16 fighter aircraft from the 79th EAMU out of Shaw AFB SC bombed the area outside of the military base colloquially known as the Korean hospital, [2] due to its former usage by the South Korean military.
Following the attack HHC, 307th AEB coordinated the closing of the breach in the perimeter created by the initial blast and subsequent bombings by US Forces. The 244th Engineer Company, a National Guard unit hailing from Hagerstown, Maryland, took mission command to repair the breach in Bagram's perimeter wall utilizing organic equipment.
Bagram Airfield-BAF, also known as Bagram Air Base, is located 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) southeast of Charikar in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan. It is under the Afghan Ministry of Defense. Sitting on the site of the ancient Bagram at an elevation of 1,492 metres (4,895 ft) above sea level, the air base has two concrete runways. The main one measures 3,602 by 46 metres, capable of handling large military aircraft, including the Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy. The second runway measures 2,953 by 26 metres. The air base also has at least three large hangars, a control tower, numerous support buildings, and various housing areas. There are also more than 13 hectares of ramp space and five aircraft dispersal areas, with over 110 revetments.
The Taliban insurgency began after the group's fall from power during the 2001 War in Afghanistan. The Taliban forces fought against the Afghan government, led by President Hamid Karzai, and later by President Ashraf Ghani, and against a US-led coalition of forces that has included all members of NATO; the 2021 Taliban offensive resulted in the collapse of the government of Ashraf Ghani. The private sector in Pakistan extends financial aid to the Taliban, contributing to their financial sustenance.
Operation Mountain Fury was a NATO-led operation begun on September 16, 2006 as a follow-up operation to Operation Medusa, to clear Taliban insurgents from the eastern provinces of Afghanistan. Another focus of the operation was to enable reconstruction projects such as schools, health-care facilities, and courthouses to take place in the targeted provinces.
Forward Operating Base Salerno is a former forward operating base used by the United States Armed Forces from 2002 to 2013 during Operation Enduring Freedom. It is located in the southeastern province of Khost, Afghanistan, near the city of Khost. On 1 November 2013, U.S. forces withdrew from FOB Salerno and transferred control of the installation to the Afghan National Army.
Between 7 October 2001 and 30 August 2021, the United States lost a total of 2,459 military personnel in Afghanistan. Of this figure, 1,922 had been killed in action. An additional 20,769 were wounded in action. 18 operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency were also killed during the conflict. Further, there were 1,822 civilian contractor fatalities.
2003 in Afghanistan. A list of notable incidents in Afghanistan during 2003
The following lists events from 2014 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened in 2013 in Afghanistan.
On December 21, 2015, in Bagram, a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing six NATO service members.
The following lists events that happened during 2016 in Afghanistan.
The 2016 Bagram bombing took place on November 12, 2016, when a suicide bomber managed to penetrate the security layer of Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan located about 45 km north of Kabul, detonating his vest near a group of soldiers who were en route to Modern Army Combatives Training. Four U.S. citizens were killed (2 soldiers and 2 contractors, while at least 17 others were injured, including 16 Americans and 1 Polish citizen. One injured soldier died a month later from complications due to injuries sustained in the blast raising the total killed to 5.
Events in the year 2017 in Afghanistan.
On 8 July 2014, a Taliban suicide bomber riding a bicycle attacked a joint Afghan-ISAF reconnaissance mission in the vicinity of Qalandar Khel Village in front of the Korean Clinic.
Events in the year 2018 in Afghanistan.
Events from the year 2019 in Afghanistan.
The Islamic State–Taliban conflict is an ongoing insurgency waged by the Islamic State – Khorasan Province (IS-KP) against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The conflict initially began when both operated as rival insurgent groups in Nangarhar; since the formation of the Taliban's state in 2021, IS-KP members have enacted a campaign of terrorism targeting both civilians and assassinating Taliban members using hit-and-run tactics. The group have also caused incidents and attacks across the border in Pakistan.
Events in the year 2020 in Afghanistan.
The Jalalabad prison break was a coordinated attack and prison break conducted by the Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS–K) on 2 August 2020 which targeted Jalalabad Prison in the provincial capital of Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan. The attack, which intended to free other members of ISIS–K previously incarcerated by the Afghan government, has been described by counterterrorism analysts as "a highly sophisticated [...] coordinated assault" and in 2023 as "one of [ISIS–K's] most sophisticated and ambitious attacks to date."