- ‘Heroic’ fighting repels Afghan militants
The official said militants didn’t get into the outpost but they did overrun a small U.S.-led observation point outside the base, where it is believed most of the American and Afghan fatalities and injuries occurred.
Laity described the insurgent strike as a “major attack” by a “large group of insurgents.”
“What there was was a combat outpost had a major attack on it by a large group of insurgents. They had infiltrated a neighboring village and they fired on the base from that village and then they attacked the base itself.”
He said severe fighting followed, resulting in the American casualties and the wounding of four Afghan service members.
“They attempted to break into that base. They did make some penetration.
But overall they were repelled and they took very heavy casualties themselves,” Laity said.
He indicated that the penetration or breach that media reports about the strike referred to was the attack on the observation post.
“We brought in air power to stabilize the situation in a fight that then lasted for several hours,” he said.
