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Two U.S. soldiers injured in Kandahar firefight

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two U.S. soldiers have suffered minor wounds in a fierce firefight at Afghanistan's Kandahar International Airport, military sources said Thursday.

U.S. soldiers said Wednesday's attackers appeared well-trained in handling their weapons, striking all the manned positions in the area and hitting their targets with a high degree of accuracy.

The two wounded soldiers -- one grazed in the neck by a bullet and the other with a wounded finger -- were treated and returned to duty.

Lt. Darren McDonough said that he "had a lot of fire coming around me" when he was hit. "I heard a whacking noise and felt a burning on my neck," McDonough said.

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Responding to McDonough's radio call that he'd been wounded, Corp. Anthony Mata stepped in to what he described as "chaos" as he helped the officer to safety. There was no other information on the name of the second wounded soldier.

McDonough and Mata described the sound of bullets "snapping" overhead and heard them pounding into the sandbags that protected their positions. The bullets ripped open some of the sandbags and knocked others off the roofs of their positions.

But U.S. Central Command, which is in charge of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, called the attack on the airport "ineffective."

The firing came from about 55 yards (50 meters) away, with the attackers shooting from a 6-to-8-foot-deep depression surrounded by heavy brush, U.S. officials said. They said they believe that the attackers may have gotten past the airport perimeter via an extensive tunnel system and that they intended to do nothing more than inflict damage and get out.

The attackers fought with AK-47 rifles during the 20-minute firefight, and U.S. troops responded with machine guns and scrambled Apache helicopters, officials said.

Central Command said seven people were captured at the western perimeter of the airport, but a U.S. military official later said that the seven were released after it was determined that they didn't have anything to do with the shooting.

The firing came after a number of muffled explosions were heard around 7:30 p.m. local time Wednesday from west of the airport.

Army officials said troops on the western perimeter had detected incoming fire and returned fire. CNN reporters said they could see tracer fire through the front windows of the Kandahar airport. They did not see any incoming fire, only red tracer fire going out on the western perimeter.

The runway remained open and a C-17 aircraft took off. After the plane's takeoff, however, the runway's lights were turned off.

Occasional lights could be seen flickering beyond the airport perimeter, and Apache helicopter gunships could be heard flying over the western perimeter.

About an hour after the first firing, a loud explosion and a bright flash could be seen on a mountain some distance from the airport.