By Viola Gienger and Tony Capaccio Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) — Eight American civilians died in a suicide-bomb attack on an American military base in Afghanistan, a U.S. official said. The terror assault occurred as the U.S. expands its involvement in the war in Afghanistan. A single attacker was responsible for the blast yesterday, which also caused an unspecified number of injuries, according to the official, who asked not to be identified. A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Almarah Belk, said the Americans died at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province. An attack on a base is particularly threatening because the sites are regarded as sanctuaries, said retired U.S. Army General Jack Keane, a member of the advisory Defense Policy Board. “So when you’re able to penetrate that, you achieve a level of terror and intimidation that the attacks outside the bases, even though they happen daily, do not achieve.” U.S. officials haven’t yet described the affiliations of the slain civilians. The U.S. has been expanding the ranks of civilian aid experts in Afghanistan in parallel with the surge of military reinforcements aimed at the Taliban insurgency. Belk said she didn’t know what installations or agencies are located at the base. “We mourn the loss of life in this attack, and are withholding further details pending notification of next of kin,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in an e-mailed statement. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development aim to strengthen the government of President Hamid Karzai and local officials to demonstrate to Afghans the benefits of backing elected leaders and defeating the Taliban. Civilian Strategy General Stanley McChrystal , the commander of U.S. and other NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, has said civilian aid will be pivotal in solidifying gains the military makes with the 30,000 additional troops that President Barack Obama authorized earlier this month. The number of civilians working on reconstruction, improving governance and bolstering health and education services is due to triple to about 1,000 in January compared with a year earlier. As of October, U.S. civilians worked at about 52 locations in Afghanistan, according to Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew . “In some cases, they’re moving into areas that have just been cleared with the military as the clearing process is under way,” Lew told reporters in Washington on Oct. 26. “They go in groups of two to 10 to 15. They’re surrounded by locally employed staff, by Afghan nationals who are working in a civilian capacity and by” employees of non-governmental organizations, he said. Blast Probed Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician , a spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led force in Afghanistan, said the base explosion is under investigation. Khost is located in eastern Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan. Southern and eastern Afghanistan are areas where the Taliban have made the biggest inroads. The additional U.S. troops will bring the number of American forces in Afghanistan to almost 100,000 in 2010. Obama’s strategy is to roll back the Taliban, which harbored al- Qaeda before being ousted from power after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in time to begin a drawdown of troops in July 2011. In testimony to Congress this month after Obama announced his revised approach, officials including Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned that the increasing activity also was bound to lead to higher U.S. and allied casualties until the momentum turns. To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net ; Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net
See the original post:
Eight American Civilians Killed in Suicide-Bomb Attack at Afghanistan Base
