In the early morning of December 11, 2019, the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

attacked

Bagram Air Base Bagram Airfield-BAF, also known as Bagram Air Base , is located 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 above sea le ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, which at the time was controlled by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The attackers used two car bombs which killed two

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not " combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant ...

s and injured 80 others.

The attack

insurgents attacked the western part of the base following the explosion. The attack was repelled by a US-led

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

forces. At 5:50 AM 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.

American military response

Just minutes after the attacks, Marine advisors 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). 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 US fighter aircraft bombed the area outside of the military base colloquially known as the Korean hospital. 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.

References

2019 in international relations 2019 murders in Afghanistan 21st century in Parwan Province Attacks on military installations in the 2010s Attacks on United States entities Crime in Parwan Province Suicide bombings in 2019 Suicide car and truck bombings in Afghanistan Taliban attacks Taliban bombings Terrorist incidents in Afghanistan in 2019 Attacks in Afghanistan in 2019 {{Terrorism-stub