Rocket strike at Afghan base wounds 8 NATO troops

A rocket strike at the major international military base in southern Afghanistan wounded eight foreign service members - four Bulgarians and four Romanians - NATO said on Monday.

The rocket hit inside Kandahar Air Field on Sunday evening, said Flight Lt. Wendy Wheadon, a spokeswoman for the international force.

The attack occurred as Bulgarian Defence Minister Nikolai Mladenov visited 270 Bulgarian troops who guard the inner zone of the Kandahar airport, the ministry said. Mladenov was about 400 yards (meters) from where the rocket hit and was not hurt.

The base was hit by rockets before, though rarely with enough precision to wound people. Flight Lt. Wheadon said the last time a rocket struck inside the base was early December when no one was hurt.

Three wounded Bulgarians were transported to Germany for further treatment, while the fourth was released on Sunday, according to the country’s Defence Ministry.

In Bucharest, the Defence Ministry confirmed two of its soldiers were hurt in the attack. One left the military hospital on Monday and the other was in stable condition, it said. It was not immediately clear why NATO and Romania had conflicting numbers of wounded troops.