Afghan terrorists attack General Martin Dempsey’s plane with rocket
Afghan militants fired rockets into a U.S. base in Afghanistan and damaged the plane of the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Army General Martin Dempsey.
The general was not near the aircraft, a spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition said Tuesday, but the rocket did strike the plane while it was still on the tarmac.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place 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 had finished his mission in Afghanistan and had left by Tuesday morning on a different plane, said Graybeal. A helicopter on the base was also damaged in the attack, according to NATO.
Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan photo/U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Samuel Morse
