Kandahar Airfield, with this barricaded and razor wire fence on its boundary, is the largest military base in southern Afghanistan. It has a population by some estimates of at least 20,000 soldiers and civilians. Kandahar Airfield, with this barricaded and razor wire fence on its boundary, is the largest military base in southern Afghanistan. It has a population by some estimates of at least 20,000 soldiers and civilians. (Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press)At least 10 insurgents are dead after launching a failed attack on Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan, NATO officials say.

The insurgents launched a ground attack on the busy base just before midday Tuesday with two rockets fired into the base, followed by a handful of would-be suicide bombers assaulting the outer gates, said Cmdr. Amanda Peterseim, a spokeswoman for NATO forces.

NOTES FROM THE FIELD

"We heard two loud pops out on the airfield, not too far from where we are, and then an alarm, so we went outside into a bunker, where another announcement came on saying the airfield was under ground attack," CBC's Cameron MacIntosh said from Kandahar Airfield, where most Canadian soldiers are based.

One NATO soldier sustained minor injuries, as did two Afghan civilians who were in the area, MacIntosh said.

"NATO is saying at no time was the base in any danger of actually being compromised. They are calling this right now a very amateurish attack," MacIntosh said.

She said there had been no reports of NATO casualties, and all of the attackers were killed in the fighting. Previous reports that some of the attackers had fled were incorrect, she said.

Peterseim said there were "approximately four" people in suicide vests. She said none of the assailants at the gates survived.

"They either detonated themselves or were killed," Peterseim said.

The insurgents are believed to be Taliban forces, NATO officials said.

Taliban insurgents previously tried to storm the Kandahar base, home to a large contingent of Canadian Forces members, on May 22, just a few days after the insurgents sent suicide bombers to assault the main U.S. base in the country — Bagram Airfield near the capital.

Security guards beheaded

Meanwhile, six Afghan private security guards were beheaded during a bank robbery in northern Afghanistan, police said Tuesday.

It appeared the police were poisoned before they were beheaded, said Sherjan Durani, a police spokesman for Balkh province. He said someone apparently mixed a poison into the guards' food Monday night at a branch of Kabul Bank in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Durani said an unknown number of robbers beheaded the guards and took about $269,000 in U.S. and Afghan currency. The case is being investigated.

With files from The Associated Press