Afghan Forces Contain Attack on Barracks

American Forces Press Service

Jan. 29, 2010 - Afghan security forces reacted quickly today to contain an insurgent attack on the Afghan National Army's Sharwali Barracks on the western edge of Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, military officials reported.

According to initial reports, the small-arms attack came primarily from an unoccupied four-story building to the south of the barracks. Insurgents fired two rockets from the area to the west of the Helmand River known as the Bolan Desert at about 10 a.m., and the rockets are believed to have landed west of the barracks.

This coordinated attempt by insurgents to launch an attack continues, officials said, but is being contained by Afghan forces. The main group of attackers was pinned down in a vacant building south of Sharwali Barracks. Attack helicopters are over the city and have fired upon insurgents.

No casualties have been reported.

In other news from Afghanistan, an Afghan-international security patrol searched a house in Helmand's Garmsir district this morning and found about 90 pounds of opium. The homeowner was questioned and released, and the drugs were confiscated and brought to a military base for disposition.

Also in Helmand today, an Afghan-international force patrolling in the Yekken Baba Ziarat district found 500 pounds of homemade explosives. Three suspects were detained, and the explosives will be destroyed, officials said.

(Compiled from International Security Assistance Force news releases.)