Dusk firefight at Afghanistan base leaves one wounded

FIRE BASE PHOENIX, Afghanistan — The firefight lasted an hour, and by the end, thankfully only one man was wounded.

Just before 8 p.m. Sunday, 24 men from the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment’s Company B, Spartan Platoon were hit hard from multiple locations by sniper, small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. With the Spartans were 12 Afghan National Army troops and two American trainers.

Sitting almost 1,500 meters high on a steep hill in the Korangal River Valley in eastern Afghanistan, above the towns of Babeyal, Ali Bad and Darbart, Phoenix might not rise far enough. It’s surrounded on all sides by hills and ridgelines almost 250 meters higher. Fire on Sunday was coming from the south, east and southwest, and from below, near places nicknamed Table Rock, Nipple Rock and Honcho Hill.  …..more