US general's plane damaged in Afghanistan
Source: Agencies |
August 22, 2012, Wednesday
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INSURGENTS fired rockets into an American base in Afghanistan and damaged the parked plane of the visiting chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff. The general was safe in his quarters at the time but had to take another aircraft out of the country yesterday.
The rocket strike that hit the C-17 military transport plane of US Army General Martin Dempsey was yet another attack by the Taliban after they claimed to have shot down a US helicopter last week.
It followed a string of killings of US military trainers by their Afghan partners. Such attacks killed 10 Americans in the last two weeks.
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place late Monday night at the Bagram Air Field outside Kabul, saying Dempsey's plane was targeted by insurgents "using exact information" about where it would be.
Two maintenance workers were slightly injured by shrapnel from the two rockets fired into, coalition spokesman Jamie Graybeal said.
Dempsey "was nowhere near" the plane when the rockets hit near where the aircraft was parked, the spokesman added.
Dempsey finished his mission in Afghanistan and left yesterday morning on a different plane, he said. A helicopter on the base was also damaged in the attack, according to NATO.
Graybeal cast doubt on the idea that Dempsey's plane may have been hit by any precision attack. He said that insurgent rocket and mortar attacks are "not infrequent" at Bagram and such fire most often comes from so far away that it's virtually impossible to hit specific targets.
Bagram is a sprawling complex about an hour's drive north of Kabul that usually serves as the first point of entrance for US officials visiting the country. It is the hub for military operations in the east of the country and the largest US base in Afghanistan.
Dempsey was in Afghanistan to discuss the state of the war after a particularly deadly few weeks for Americans in the more than 10-year-old war as international forces begin drawing down.
Among the topics was the escalating number of "insider attacks" in which Afghan police or soldiers or militants dressed in Afghan uniform turn their guns on coalition military trainers.
Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar last week said the insider killings were the result of an insurgent campaign of infiltration.
The Taliban also claimed to have shot down a US military helicopter that crashed during a firefight with insurgents in a remote area of southern Afghanistan last Thursday, killing seven Americans and four Afghans on board.
The rocket strike that hit the C-17 military transport plane of US Army General Martin Dempsey was yet another attack by the Taliban after they claimed to have shot down a US helicopter last week.
It followed a string of killings of US military trainers by their Afghan partners. Such attacks killed 10 Americans in the last two weeks.
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place late Monday night at the Bagram Air Field outside Kabul, saying Dempsey's plane was targeted by insurgents "using exact information" about where it would be.
Two maintenance workers were slightly injured by shrapnel from the two rockets fired into, coalition spokesman Jamie Graybeal said.
Dempsey "was nowhere near" the plane when the rockets hit near where the aircraft was parked, the spokesman added.
Dempsey finished his mission in Afghanistan and left yesterday morning on a different plane, he said. A helicopter on the base was also damaged in the attack, according to NATO.
Graybeal cast doubt on the idea that Dempsey's plane may have been hit by any precision attack. He said that insurgent rocket and mortar attacks are "not infrequent" at Bagram and such fire most often comes from so far away that it's virtually impossible to hit specific targets.
Bagram is a sprawling complex about an hour's drive north of Kabul that usually serves as the first point of entrance for US officials visiting the country. It is the hub for military operations in the east of the country and the largest US base in Afghanistan.
Dempsey was in Afghanistan to discuss the state of the war after a particularly deadly few weeks for Americans in the more than 10-year-old war as international forces begin drawing down.
Among the topics was the escalating number of "insider attacks" in which Afghan police or soldiers or militants dressed in Afghan uniform turn their guns on coalition military trainers.
Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar last week said the insider killings were the result of an insurgent campaign of infiltration.
The Taliban also claimed to have shot down a US military helicopter that crashed during a firefight with insurgents in a remote area of southern Afghanistan last Thursday, killing seven Americans and four Afghans on board.
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