Attack on air base kills 3 Afghans

KABUL -- Insurgents bombarded Bagram Air Field and destroyed a NATO helicopter, killing three Afghan intelligence employees, officials said yesterday. There were also NATO personnel aboard and wounded, the coalition said.

In western Afghanistan, a teenage suicide bomber walked into a shop and blew himself up, killing five people, Afghan officials said.

The bombing and the strike at Bagram, outside Kabul, came as U.S. and allied military forces marked the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with a tribute to the more than 3,000 foreign troops killed in the invasion of Afghanistan, including 2,000 members of the U.S. military.

The attacks were a reminder that the Afghan war, launched less than a month after 9/11, continues to rage, with insurgents waging a ceaseless campaign against the U.S.-led NATO coalition and the Afghan government.

"Eleven years on from that day there should be no doubt that our dedication to this commitment, that commitment that was seared into our souls that day so long ago, remains strong and unshaken," said Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and coalition troops, at a ceremony at NATO's Kabul headquarters.

"Today we remember the victims here in Afghanistan who have suffered so horribly at the hands of al-Qaida and the Taliban . . .," he said. "Perhaps more significant to all of us . . . today we remember the precious soldiers and civilians of all nations lost in Afghanistan since that day of infamy in 2001." -- AP