Missile attack on Spanish forces in Afghanistan 03/04/2007 00:00

3 April 2007

MADRID - Two missiles were fired at the Spanish base in Herat, Afghanistan, but there were no injuries or serious damage, a Spanish Defence Ministry spokesman told Efe on Tuesday.

A team of sappers found that one missile struck 200 metres (yards) from the northern perimeter of the base and 1,300 metres (yards) from the maintenance hangars, while they calculated that the other fell three kilometers (2 miles) from the military parking area.

Sources at the Spanish Defence Ministry thought that the shells used in the attack, which occurred around midnight Monday, were fired either by mortars or by artillery of about 100 millimeters.

Security systems at the Spanish base were deactivated 30 minutes after the explosions when it had been verified that no one was injured and there were no material damages.

Spain has 690 military personnel in Afghanistan, chiefly deployed at the forward support base in Herat, where there are 430 troops, and at the base in Qala-e-Naw, with 187.

The rest are stationed at Manas, a U.S. base in the central Asiatic republic of Kirghizstan, and in Kabul.

The last attack against Spanish troops in Afghanistan took place last March 15, when a motorcycle carrying two Afghan civilians blew up some 200 meters (yards) from a military convoy.

In that incident which took place between Afghanistan's R-515 ring road and the town of Farah, one of the civilians died while handling an explosive device with which he apparently intended to attack Spanish troops and other contingents.

Nonetheless, the worst attack this year against Spanish troops occurred February 21 when the soldier Idoia Roidriguez died and another two soldiers were wounded when a mine exploded as the convoy of armored vehicles in which they were traveling passed by in the vicinity of Shindand, a town in the western part of the country. EFE

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news