Scores of NATO Personnel Wounded In Suicide Truck Bomb Attack In Afghanistan

Afghan Bombing Wounds Scores Of NATO Troops -- Al Jazeera

At least 77 troops injured and two civilians killed in Taliban truck bomb attack on coalition base in Afghanistan.

At least 77 NATO personnel have been wounded and two Afghan civilians killed in a truck bomb attack on a base in eastern Afghanistan, according to the military coalition.

The injured were evacuated to medical facilities or were treated at the scene of the blast in Wardak province late on Saturday, NATO said in a statement.

US forces are responsible for security in Wardak province, according to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) website.

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More News On Today's Suicide Bombing At A NATO Base In Afghanistan

Afghan truck bomb hits US troops in Wardak -- BBC
NATO: 77 personnel injured after Taliban hit Afghan coalition base -- CNN
Nato military base attacked by suicide bomber in Afghanistan -- The Guardian
Afghan Suicide Bomber Kills 2, Wounds Scores -- Voice of America
At least 77 U.S. troops in Afghanistan wounded in 9/11 eve attack -- CBS News/AP
At least 89 US special troops injured in Taliban suicide attack in Afghanistan -- Debka File

Battle For Afghanistan's Gambir Jungle Part III

Battle For Afghanistan's Gambir Jungle: 1st Platoon's 'Last Stand' -- Christian Science Monitor

By the end of Day 1 of Operation Hammer Down, 1st Platoon needed help. But when reinforcements arrived, they found they had more than enough of their own troubles.

Operation Hammer Down had begun in the hours before midnight of June 24 as an operation to flush insurgents out of terrorist training camps in the remote valleys of eastern Afghanistan. Now, in the full light of Sunday, June 25, it was clear that B Company's 1st Platoon was, in the words of one soldier, being "rocked."

From a ridge some 500 yards away, the soldiers from B Company's 3rd Platoon, also a part of Operation Hammer Down, could see the battle raging between the 1st and the Taliban.

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WNU Editor: Part 1 of this series is here, and part 2 is here.

Battle For Afghanistan's Gambir Jungle Part II

Battle For Afghanistan's Gambir Jungle: Into The 'Valley Of Death' -- Christian Science Monitor

The first, furious hours of Operation Hammer Down took a heavy toll on 1st Platoon. As the Taliban picked off platoon leaders, there was little the Americans could do but wait for nightfall.

By late June, the US troops of Operation Hammer Down were ready to go, and they had terrorist training camps of the Pech River Valley in their sights.

The Pech Valley is the face of the war in eastern Afghanistan: remote, treacherous, and home to the legendary veterans of the battles against Soviet occupation in the 1980s. It has been called the "Valley of Death."

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WNU Editor: Part I of this series is here.