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Saturday, December 1, 2018

Industry Talk: Taliban Attack G4S Compound In Kabul

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 6:14 PM

Luke Griffin, Facebook Page Photo.

 

Man, for a first post coming back home, this one is a tough one to write about. My heart goes out to the friends and family of those that were killed, and this is a difficult time for the G4S family. This is the second attack on G4S folks (March of this year) and this kind of thing can definitely impact the morale of folks on the ground and especially during the holidays.

With that said, I wanted to write about this and give folks a chance to correct the record or add to the story. There is no AAR on this incident and everything I have on it is from open source or from folks on Facebook that have brought forth information. So with any of this stuff I have posted, please feel free to comment below to correct the record.

My other intent is for other security folks to use this for research and learn from it. The value of incidents like this is that other folks that are performing similar type duties elsewhere in the world, can learn from what happened in incidents like this.

The attack happened November 27, 2018 at 0630 PM. This is from Tolo. For timing and cause, the Taliban said it was in retaliation for an air strike that killed some civilians. It was also timed right after a conference in Geneva where President Ghani spoke of appointing a team to seek a peace deal which would take five years to implement. There have been numerous attacks recently, and in my view, they are a sign that the Taliban wants leverage in the ongoing peace talks.

The coalition have also dropped a record number of ordinance throughout the country in an effort to help Afghan forces stop the Taliban. The Taliban have definitely taken more territory in 2018 and hold a pretty good chunk of Afghanistan.

The method of attack was pretty simple. The suicide bomber drove a water tanker packed with explosives to the gate, outside of the G4S compound in Pul-e-Charkhil, in Kabul’s Police District 9 area. They also call this the Anjuman base and it has other stuff nearby like the Green Village. Once the bomb was detonated and the front gate guards manning the entry control point were taken out, an assault force stormed the compound. The blast was big, and TOLO showed the damage in this video.

 

 

This assault force was apparently armed with ‘small arms and rockets‘, so I assume AK’s and RPG’s. No word if they had explosive vests and I have no better information than that.

They fought their way in, sent everyone running to bunkers, and were met by the responding quick reaction force. So all together, there were five attackers- one suicide truck driver that died in the blast, and four assaulters that entered the compound by foot.

For time frame, this attack lasted 10 hours from when the assault started. So this was an all night affair, and a pretty extensive clearing operation. One security guard told TOLO news that one of the attackers was alive until early Thursday morning. According to the local Afghan police chief in charge of the district there, this is the break down of casualties.

Col. Bismillah Taban, the police of chief of the district where the attack happened, said six Afghans and a British citizen were killed in the attack, and 27 others — 11 Nepalese, 11 Afghans, and 5 British — were wounded. Most of the casualties came from the initial blast, he said.

Col. Taban said the last of the four attackers were killed nearly 10 hours after the assault begun, just before dawn.

“The police were moving slow because there was a hostage situation inside, where the staff of the firm were stuck in bunkers,” he said. “We rescued 330 people from inside.”

G4S made a statement about the incident and listed casualty figures on their Facebook page. Feel free to go there to show your condolences or seek answers to any questions. They said five of their employees were killed, and 32 were injured.

 

 

One of the individuals that was killed in the counter attack was 33 year old Luke Griffin. He was a British citizen from the Rainhill, Merseyside area, and had worked for the company for 8 years.  He had done time in Iraq and Afghanistan as a contractor and in the military. Luke had served in the 16th Regiment Royal Artillery in Afghanistan when he was in the military. Apparently he was with one of the PSD teams that G4S runs in Afghanistan, and responded to this incident as part of a quick reaction force. He is a father of one child, a son, and husband of Helen Morris.

Colleagues of Luke mentioned that there are many people alive today because of his actions. If anyone else would like to further fill in the details of what happened to Luke, or of the efforts of his quick reaction force, please fill free to contact me or write below in the comments section. This will be on Facebook as well. The other folks that were killed were his fellow Afghans, and I would like to hear about their actions as well. My intent is to make sure their story is heard and it is correct. Here is a quote from the Sun.

A suicide car bomber detonated a huge device at the gate of the Anjuman base near the city’s airport before heavily armed fighters swarmed inside.
But they were pushed back in brave defensive action spearheaded by British security teams.
Luke – a veteran infantryman who saw action in the Iraq and Afghan campaigns – is understood to have been cut down after grabbing his weapon and dashing into the firefight.
Five other British G4S staff were wounded in the battle – including one with blast injuries to his face and another with shrapnel wounds to his arm and hand.
Dad-of-one Luke, from Rainhill, Merseyside but originally from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, was a member of one of the four G4S “quick reaction teams” securing the sprawling base.

My other thought here was the loss of Nepalese and Afghans. The Nepalese lost a quite a few folks in a 2016 attack, and the Afghans as a whole have lost many at the service of private companies in this war. Their sacrifice, like any contractor in this war, must not be forgotten.

In the company statement, numerous groups came to help out with security and medical support. No mention of specific groups, other than police were involved with clearing operations. I have to think that the surviving security forces were involved with clearing operations, as well as partner NATO nations. Possibly special operations folks, that type of thing. There were apparently 230 to 330 hostages on the compound that required rescuing, according to various reports. They hid in safe rooms and/or bunkers, and probably stood by while the police and adjacent forces cleared. Like the security guard mentioned at TOLO, there was one last guy that was killed in the morning, so that means he could have been killing and wounding folks all through the night.

No word on aviation support, but I have to imagine something showed up to help out. If anyone has anything to add for that, please feel free to comment.

As for commentary, incidents like this highlight the difficulty of securing a compound near a main road. Typically you want stand off distance between your ECP and any kind of access. You want folks to be able to survive a blast like this, so that at least they can counter a ground assault. In this case, the entire ECP defense team was probably wiped out or wounded and the assaulters made entry. Which brings up the the next point–quick reaction forces.

These days, if you cannot move the compound to someplace where you have stand off distance, then focus needs to be on really building up the blast walls/defenses and ensuring the quick reaction force is actually a ‘quick’ reaction force. Can it react within seconds and minutes of an incident? Often times, jihadists and assaulters that the Taliban use, are armed with small arms and explosive vests. They are literally fighting their way into pockets of human concentration and quickly. Think Dining Facilities, bunkers, class rooms, etc. Anything that will give them a high concentration of humans, so that they could shoot them or detonate their vest and kill them. So it is imperative to have a means of stopping such a force before they reach these zones.

Drilling and training both the security force and those that you are protecting is essential. From what it looks like, folks ran to bunkers and designated safe zones. The goal is to get them into places that will give them cover and allow them to survive an assault like this until the clearing forces can do their job. But time is everything, and with these types of attacks, the assaulters have the advantage. They could kick off their attack with a big boom like this, and everyone is dazed and there is chaos everywhere–which assaulters will take advantage of. Or the attack is kicked off from the inside– like the typical green on blue attacks. It could be both, and the goal is violence of action to create the maximum amount of shock to the nervous systems of their targets and to inflict the most amount of damage and death. So response via a quick reaction team is critical to these types of deals and preparing the occupants and facility is equally critical.

Medical is another area to focus on. As police and security are trying to clear, it might be impossible for medical folks to get into a specific area to treat injured. So ensuring security/clients have some kind of medical training to handle injuries until forces get to them is very important. Tourniquet training, and other basics is advisable. We are talking about blast wounds and gunshot wounds.

Communications can be crap during a deal like this. Most basic coms that companies use, shut down when overloaded with a ton of traffic. Repeaters cannot handle everyone trying to talk on the same net, or folks overwhelm the channels. So a simple thing like a communications plan, that includes primary and secondary and tertiary means of communication needs to be worked out so that it can account for this type of scenario. I am sure folks were using WhatsApp or cellphones or whatever they had, in order to communicate during the incident. No word on what coms were like for this deal, but it is definitely something that is a factor.

Clearing operations is very dangerous and very difficult. Does G4S train their guys for that? I don’t know, nor will I speculate. The thing to be aware of is that one bullet can go through multiple pods or trailers that you see on sites like this. Whatever safe room or bunker you designate, you need to keep this in mind and make sure it is actually protective. That and coordinating with the responding and adjacent forces can be a nightmare. Training and drills are key to making sure everyone is aware of what is involved with this stuff. I do not know if anyone was harmed during the actual clearing operations. Remember, they didn’t get the last attacker until the following morning, and so that is a long night of slow and detailed clearing of the compound. Clearing forces get tired, or spooked, and the possibility of shooting an innocent person is there.

Finally, it is often incidents like this that really show the strengths and weaknesses of whatever plan the company had. I would highly recommend that G4S do an extensive after action report on what happened, and conclude with some lessons learned. That document could then be used in future training, and an effort should be made to bring in any of the survivors of the incident to talk to the class about it. It is much more impactful to have those that were there explain the who, what, where, when and why of the whole thing. It has value because it could save lives in future incidents. Unfortunately, most companies do not do this and they do not share that information with the outside world if they do. More than likely because of possible liability reasons or lack of leadership pushing the issue and making it a priority.

As a security contractor and student of my profession, I always like to promote the idea that we should all take the time to learn from these types of incidents. Read the available after action reviews, wikis, open source reports, blogs, forums, etc. to get a better picture of what happened. Know your enemy, and know yourself as they say. Reach out to those that were there and ask them about it if you can. It is amazing what little details come up in conversation that were not mentioned in reports. I also study video footage, because most jihadists love to post their work. Most importantly, apply Kaizen or continuous improvement to your defense. Todays enemies are constantly evolving and seeking new ways of attack. We need to be constantly staying one step ahead of them and operating within their decision making cycle to win that fight. –Matt 

Edit: 12/22/2018 Tim Lynch of Free Range International fame is now writing over at a website called The Freq Media and his series is called the Afghanistan Weekly. He wrote an in-depth post about this attack and the history of security work in Kabul. Check it out here.

 

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Massachusetts: The Boston Marathon Bombings

My heart goes out to the victims and dead, to the friends and family members of the victims and dead, and to the first responders and bystanders that stepped up to help.

I do not really have a lot of input on the attack. I think what is interesting though is that no one has claimed responsibility yet, which might indicate that we are dealing with an individual or a pair that put this together, and not an organization. If I had to speculate, my guess is that this is domestic terrorism, but you never know?

This attack is not particularly complex, and whomever the bomber was, could have easily put this attack together on their own. All of the components used in this IED would not really flag the individual prior too this attack. In the US, gunpowder or fertilizer is very easy to purchase (speculation). Pressure cookers can be bought anywhere, as can backpacks. There are plenty of videos and news broadcasts of attacks just like this one that came out of places like Iraq or Afghanistan, that a bomber could learn from and copy. The amount of information on such topics is all over the internet.

On that note, authorities are in the process of pouring over the thousands of images and film taken with cellphone cameras and other devices that people had taken at the time. Someone had to have seen the bomber place the backpacks into those trash cans. There is even a time period when the backpack was placed, based on the IED sweep done by authorities prior to and during the race. Here is the quote:

Officials swept the area for bombs twice before the explosions; one of the sweeps occurred an hour before the bombs went off. People were able to come and go freely, and carry items in and out of the area. More than 5,700 runners had yet to cross the finish line at the time of the explosions.

I hope they are able to catch them, and please, if you think you might have seen something of interest here, contact the FBI. –Matt

 

 

Boston Marathon bombings (from wikipedia)
Two bombs exploded at the 2013 Boston Marathon on the afternoon of April 15, 2013, injuring spectators, runners, and others near the finish line. The improvised explosive devices exploded about 12 seconds apart at 2:50 p.m. EDT (18:50 UTC) along Boylston Street west of Copley Square. The blasts killed 3 people and injured at least 183 others.
No suspects have been named, and there have been no arrests or claims of responsibility for the attack. President Barack Obama announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating the bombings as an act of terrorism.
Bombings
On Patriots’ Day, Monday, April 15, 2013, the annual Boston Marathon was held with no indications of an imminent attack. Officials swept the area for bombs twice before the explosions; one of the sweeps occurred an hour before the bombs went off. People were able to come and go freely, and carry items in and out of the area. More than 5,700 runners had yet to cross the finish line at the time of the explosions.

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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Afghanistan: Attack On NATO Convoy Kills 17, To Include 8 Contractors

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 2:28 PM

Very sad. These Rhinos are the large armored buses they use to transport folks and it sounds like it got hit by a very large VBIED. Rest in peace to the fallen. I do not know what company these guys were with, or if they were civilians hired directly by ISAF. –Matt

Edit: 11/01/11– Thanks to Ms Sparky. Fluor made a statement about the loss of their 7 contractors in this incident at her site. No word on the 8th contractor and who they worked for. Here is the statement:

Team Fluor,
Saturday we suffered a tragic loss of seven of our own teammates during an attack in Kabul. Each of those we lost was a friend and valued part of our team. We lived and worked together. We forged bonds of camaraderie that are only found at times like this.
We each deal with our grief in different ways; some will find comfort in memorial services like the one we held at Dubbs or the ramp ceremony at Bagram, others will find that talking to friends, a Chaplain, or counselor helps. We have Site Managers and Employee Assistance Program teams on site to help us through this difficult time and find ways to cope.
Yesterday we notified the families of those we lost and we have assistance officers with them to help each of the families get through the difficult times ahead. I have asked our leaders to stay engaged with our colleagues that need assistance here and answer the questions that we can. I want to be sure you all have this information, as I know that rumors and internet blogs have not always been the best source for information.
Should you have any questions or need assistance, please talk to your immediate supervisor. He or she can provide the first step to find direction or help and ensure the proper steps are taken. Keep in mind that we have professional counselors on our EAP team available to assist you.
Although many of us know them personally, out of respect for their families we are not releasing any names of those lost in the attack. Please join me as our thoughts and prayers are with our teammates and their families during this difficult time.

George Rabb, Country Manager, LOGCAP?Fluor Government Group

 

 

Attack on NATO convoy kills 17 in Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH
October 29, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into an armored NATO bus Saturday on a busy thoroughfare in Kabul, killing 17 people, including a dozen Americans, in the deadliest strike against the U.S.-led coalition in the Afghan capital since the war began.
The blast occurred on the same day that a man wearing an Afghan army uniform killed three coalition troops, who were reportedly Australian, in the south — attacks that show the resiliency of the insurgency and are likely to raise new doubts about the unpopular 10-year-old war and the Western strategy of trying to talk peace with the Taliban.
A spokesman for the fundamentalist Islamic movement, which was ousted in the 2001 invasion for its affiliation with al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the bomber had used 1,540 pounds (700 kilograms) of explosives.
The Taliban and related groups have staged more than a dozen major attacks in Kabul this year, including seven since June, in an apparent campaign to weaken confidence in the Afghan government as it prepares to take over its own security ahead of a 2014 deadline for the U.S. and other NATO countries to withdraw their troops or move them into support roles.
Underscoring the difficulties ahead, the brazen assault occurred just hours after top Afghan and Western officials met in the heart of Kabul to discuss the second phase of shifting security responsibilities to Afghan forces in all or part of 17 of the country’s 34 provinces. Afghans already have the lead in the Afghan capital.

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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Afghanistan: The US Embassy Is Attacked, And Yet Nothing Said About Security Contractor Performance?

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 4:42 PM

Boy, this latest attack in Kabul was an interesting incident. Purely because I have yet to hear anything at all about the security contractor performance during this whole deal.

Now I will tell you what I have heard that is not making the news, and that is at least one Afghan security guard was wounded on the compound itself. I have also heard that the tower that the Taliban were using in this attack was a major concern of security contractors that have been posted at that site over the years. It is the high ground, and positions like this are always a concern. But what was done about it? Because I am sure the RSO’s over the years had received an earful about it.

I have also heard that there weren’t any M-2’s or MK-19’s used to decimate those enemy positions in the tower. At those distances, something like a M-2 .50 cal. could reach the tower and pour some hate on it.  It might have saved some lives, and yet I am hearing that the military component of the defense did not respond with such tools? I could be wrong here, and I would like to be corrected on this. Because I am sure the contractors didn’t have those tools or authority to use those kinds of weapons. (The video below shows the fight at ISAF, and I don’t see any heavy weapons being used?)

Either way, I would love to hear from any contractors or soldiers that were on scene on any of those compounds that were involved in this fight. Because it is just odd to me that we spend this much money on the WPS guys and the KESF guys, and everyone else in between, and there is nothing at all about their good work and sacrifice? It is actually in poor taste that the DoS, ISAF or NATO refuses to say anything at all about our industry’s contribution in incidents like this.

The other reason why I wanted to post this is to give any of the companies and DoS/ISAF/NATO a chance to communicate about the contractor performance during this deal. Because as we speak, the media and new media folks out there are filling in the vacuum of information with their narrative.

You have folks like POGO that have been excellent at pointing out the deficiencies of companies like AGNA, but currently is spinning this latest deal as if AGNA performed poorly in this incident? And yet POGO has not one shred of information to support anything of the sort. So instead, they go off on the past performance of AGNA to leave the reader with the idea that they ‘must have performed poorly during this incident’. That is what I mean by narrative, and DoS and company silence is doing more harm than good.

Hell, if you want, I could spin this as a deal where the contractors performed well?  I could just assume that because not one diplomat or federal employee was killed or injured, that the defense was excellent. Or I could use quotes from guys like General Carsten Jacobsen:

He said the attack proved the security of the Nato and US embassy compounds, which were not breached, and said the Afghan forces responded “very well” and quickly.

But instead, I would like to draw some conclusions based on facts. So help me out folks, and don’t let others who could care less about the facts control the narrative.

Now of course the DoS/ISAF/NATO is probably instructing AGNA or other companies not to make any press releases, or there is some contract stipulation against such things, but still?  It is just horribly odd to me that there is not a mention about the very people that put their lives on the line to defend the property and people of these compounds during such a publicized attack? –Matt

(definitely ‘like’ the US Embassy in Kabul, ISAF and NATO let them know on their wall what you think)

Edit: 9/15/2011- Supposedly there were two contractor injuries. Thanks to a reader for the information.

Edit: 9/16/2011- Ok, I have had several reports from readers that contractors were engaged in combat during this deal. Meaning, they were using their weapons to defend against attackers. Which I am glad they did, and I certainly hope they killed some of these Taliban attackers? Nothing confirmed as far as how many Taliban were killed by contractors. There were also multiple RPG hits within the compound.

 

 

Statement from Ambassador Crocker on Attacks of September 13, 2011
Yesterday was a long and difficult day for the U.S. Embassy, for ISAF and for the residents of Kabul.  We witnessed both cowardly attacks by an increasingly desperate insurgency, as well as instances of enormous courage and dedication on the part of ISAF troops and especially the Afghan National Security Forces.  It was Afghan police and soldiers who bravely ended the attack on the embassy and stopped further strikes on Kabul Airport, two police stations, and a local high school.  We mourn the Afghan civilians and the brave troops and security forces killed in these actions, and wish a full recovery to the wounded, which include Afghan civilians and American and partner-nation troops.  We offer condolences to the families of these innocent victims.??The attacks serve to highlight the weakness at the core of the insurgency.  Unable to confront ISAF and newly-trained Afghan troops on the conventional battlefield, they have turned to launching attacks on high-profile facilities like the U.S. Embassy in an attempt to garner headlines.  Yet their actions backfired. Afghan security forces showed they were up to the task of thwarting such operations and are willing to sacrifice their lives to reclaim their communities and country.  Unlike the insurgents, the ANSF took great care to avoid civilian casualties. The transition to Afghan-led security is on track, as we turn our focus to long-term efforts for supporting a more secure, stable and prosperous Afghanistan.??As Secretary of State Clinton said yesterday, “We will be vigilant, but we will be continuing with even greater commitment to doing all we can to give the Afghan people, who have suffered so much, a chance at a better future for themselves and their children.”
Press release here.
——————————————————–
UPDATED: U.S. Embassy Statement
September 13, 2011
The U.S. Embassy confirms an attack occurred today in the area of the U.S. Embassy, including RPG and small arms fire.  Four Afghans were injured in the attack on the embassy compound, none with life threatening injuries.  They included three Afghan visa applicants and one local contract guard.

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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Afghanistan: Bagram Air Base Attacked, U.S. Contractor Killed And 9 Soldiers Wounded

     Insurgents have fired rockets at the base in the past, but the assault was “not something that commonly happens quite in this way,” said Army Master Sgt. Tom Clementson, a U.S. military spokesman at Bagram.

     “That’s a dog chasing a school bus. You don’t attack Bagram with 20 guys,” one U.S. official said. “Either they’re crazy or brave or both.”

***** 

     I haven’t a clue as to who the contractor is, and if they were part of the guard force or not.  If a reader can fill in the details on this, if it is appropriate, feel free to do so in the comments. Rest in peace to the fallen.

     Now on to this attack.  I tried to get as many articles as I could, to piece together how the attack went down.  The reason for this, is there might be some clues that guys can pick up on for the defense of their positions in other parts of the war.  These ever evolving tactics and strategies of the enemy are used in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and contractors as well as the military are in static security positions all over.  So understanding the dynamic of these types of attacks is essential for the defense of outposts and FOBs everywhere.

     Last week I posted a deal on suicide assaulters and the swarming attack that the Taliban and extremists have been using, and they are really playing around with the concepts to find a sweet spot for complex assaults.  I wanted to get the mental juices flowing on this, so everyone is thinking about how best to defeat this in their AO.

     The other point I want to emphasize is that the attackers were supposedly dressed like NATO or US troops.  That isn’t confirmed yet according to the article, but that is a crucial element to this whole thing.  The enemy is famous for using Afghan police or army uniforms as cover, and if this latest deal would not surprise me if they were wearing our uniforms.

     Overall though, it sounds like the defense at Bagram was able to defeat these bumbling fools, and bravo to them for a job well done.  And with attacks like this, the defense will only learn more about how to do it better, and further implement SOP’s that are effective and successful at defeating this stuff.  Attacks like this also emphasize how important it is to be constantly vigilant and focused with your job.  If you let your guard down, the enemy will definitely teach you a deadly lesson.  

     It also emphasizes the point of why you do not want the lowest bidder defending these bases out there.  You want the best value company defending a base, just like you would want the best doctor looking out for your health.

     One last thing with this.  I am completely disgusted with the accountability the government promised when it comes to keeping track of contractor deaths.  Even the current accounting measures with icasualties or Wikipedia sucks, and they have done a terrible job in keeping up or listing everyone that has been killed.  Why is it so hard for the government to keep track of the who, what, where, when, and why’s of contractor deaths or injuries?  That information should be collected(and mandated by law), and it should be available to the public to read. It is also extremely disrespectful to that fallen contractor and their family to not recognize their death.

     It also bothers me that we do not recognize the deaths of local contractors, like in Afghanistan or Iraq.  They died transporting our food or fuel, interpreting our language to other locals, working on our bases, protecting outposts, and to not recognize their sacrifice is just wrong. I know other contractors feel the same, because all of us that have been in this business for awhile have lost local national friends/contractors out there, and their deaths should be counted. Hell, guys have trusted the lives with local national contractors at outposts, or fought side by side with them in combat.  To not recognize their sacrifice is wrong…… just plain wrong. –Matt

Edit: 5/22/2010 -The name of the fallen contractor is Bryan Farr. Ms. Sparky has more on her blog about him here.

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U.S. contractor killed, 9 soldiers wounded in Taliban attack on Bagram air base

By Joshua PartlowMay 20, 2010

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The Taliban’s brazen assault against the heavily fortified, city-size Bagram air base Wednesday demonstrated again the insurgents’ penchant for headline-grabbing strikes at the most potent symbols of foreign power in Afghanistan.

The attack before dawn, with gunfire, rockets and grenades, killed one U.S. contractor and wounded nine American soldiers. The U.S. soldiers at the base responded by killing 10 insurgents, including four wearing suicide vests.

It was the second ambitious attack in as many days, and possibly a demonstration of the new offensive the Taliban promised this month. As the U.S. military sends thousands of new troops to the southern city of Kandahar, the Taliban vowed to respond by targeting Afghan officials, contractors and NATO forces.

On Tuesday, a suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. convoy in Kabul, killing five U.S. troops, a Canadian and at least a dozen Afghan civilians. The attack, coupled with the death of two American troops in separate bombings, pushed the U.S. death toll past 1,000 for the nine-year Afghan war.

The attack at Bagram involved 20 to 30 insurgents and began before 4 a.m., U.S. military officials said. None of them breached the perimeter, but gun battles continued for several hours.

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