Rockets hit US-run Bagram Airbase

The rocket attack on the heavily fortified site, located 11 kilometers (7 miles) southeast of the city of Charikar in Afghanistan's Parwan province, took place at around 8 p.m. local time (1530 GMT) on Saturday.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the US base in a statement by their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in which he said that a number of foreign soldiers were killed in the assault and the US airbase suffered damage.

The Pentagon has not yet confirmed the Taliban's claims about the attack or the casualties.

In May 2010, the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed reports on the existence of a secret detention facility at the Bagram Airbase.

The base is a frequent target of rocket and mortar attacks. Last year, militants launched more than a dozen attacks on Bagram, killing several US-led troops.

The attack came one day after the United States finally agreed to hand over control of the notorious Bagram prison to Afghan authorities, in a deal signed on Friday by the Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen.

Wardak said an Afghan commander would soon be appointed to take charge of the detention center in Bagram, with the transfer expected to be completed in about six months.

Anti-US sentiments have been running high across Afghanistan and the rest of the Muslim world since late February, when copies of the Holy Qur’an and other Islamic reading material were burned by US soldiers at Bagram Airbase.

The desecration ignited days of anti-US demonstrations, in which more than 30 people died in Afghanistan, and forced US President Barack Obama to apologize.

However, Afghans have rejected the apology and are demanding the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from their war-battered country.

The desecration of the Holy Qur’an underscores the US-led forces’ insensitivity about the cultural and religious values and rituals of Afghanistan, more than 10 years after they invaded the Asian nation to remove the Taliban from power.