B-52 bomber attacks Afghan rebel positions

A B-52 bomber and two fighter jets pounded a suspected rebel position after attackers fired two rockets at a US base in north-eastern Afghanistan.

No coalition casualties were reported in the fighting yesterday near the city of Asadabad.

US led troops were checking the area to see if any insurgents were killed, said Colonel Rodney Davis, a spokesman for coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Troops responded to the Asadabad rocket attack by firing mortars in the direction of the attackers and calling in air support, Davis said.

“A B-52 responded first, then two AV-8 Harriers. The B-52 dropped a Joint Direct Attack Munitions bomb and the Harriers dropped one 1,000-pound laser-guided bomb on enemy fighters observed at the suspected location,” Davis said in Kabul.

He said a group of insurgents had been spotted “on the ground, in the open,” but it was not clear how large the group was.

About 11,500 coalition troops, the bulk of them American, are in Afghanistan hunting down Taliban rebels and their allies. The Taliban were toppled in a US led war in 2001.