Taliban claims responsibility for brazen attack on Afghan NATO base

AV-8B Harrier jump jets

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a brazen attack on a NATO base in Afghanistan, called Camp Bastion, that killed two Marines and destroyed six US Marine Harrier jump jets. A Taliban spokesperson claimed the attack was aimed at Prince Harry, who is on the base, and was also revenge for the anti Islamic film insulting Mohammed.

Telegraph:

Nineteen Taliban attackers armed rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and automatic weapons breached the perimeter of Camp Bastion in a well-planned raid which shocked senior officers.

Two American Marines were killed and five aircraft damaged or destroyed five aircraft before Western soldiers led by British troops killed 18 of the attackers and took one prisoner.

The Taliban rushed to claim a propaganda victory, saying that Prince Harry, who is an Apache helicopter pilot based at Bastion, was the intended victim of the attack.

They also said they had been inspired to attack the camp, home to 28,000 personnel, by an American-made film which insults the prophet Mohammed, and which has prompted attacks on Westerm

Qari Youssef Ahmadi, the Taliban’s spokesman, said: “We attacked that base because Prince Harry was also on it and so they can know our anger. Thousands more suicide attackers are ready to give up their lives for the sake of the Prophet.”

 Camp Bastion is a British-run airfield. US, British and Nato forces are all stationed there.

Al Arabiya

Six U.S. fighter jets were destroyed and two significantly damaged when insurgents stormed a heavily fortified Afghan base where Britain’s Prince Harry is deployed on Friday, a NATO spokesman said.

Lieutenant Colonel Hagen Messer conceded that the scale of damage, carried out by more than a dozen attackers dressed in U.S. Army uniforms and armed with guns, rockets and suicide vests who managed to storm the airfield, was unprecedented.

Three coalition refueling stations were also destroyed and six aircraft hangars damaged in the assault at Camp Bastion in southern Helmand province, one of the toughest battlegrounds of the war, the U.S.-led NATO force said.

In a statement, it said the attack was “well-coordinated” and carried out by around 15 insurgents, who were organized into three teams and who penetrated the perimeter fence.

“The insurgents appeared to be well equipped, trained and rehearsed,” targeting fighter jets and helicopters parked next to the runway, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in the statement released nearly 36 hours after the assault began.