Rocket attack damages top US general’s plane in Afghanistan

A rocket attack on the US-run Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan has inflicted damage on the aircraft used by Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey.

According to authorities, two rockets were fired at the airfield early Tuesday, with shrapnel from one of the rockets striking the door of Dempsey’s C-17 aircraft.

Two US maintenance staff members sustained minor injuries in the attack.

Following the incident, Dempsey’s spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan told reporters that the official used another plane to depart the base.

The airbase, the largest US military outpost in Afghanistan, is located in the country’s Parwan Province.

The attack came while Dempsey was in Kabul to meet the commanders of the US-led forces and Afghan top officials amid a hike in the so-called ‘green-on-blue attacks’ in Afghanistan.

Reports show that the number of the ‘insider attacks,’ in which Afghan security forces turn their weapons on the US-led foreign forces occupying their country has increased. At least 40 US-led troopers have been killed in such attacks so far this year.

Insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan, despite the presence of about 130,000 US-led forces in the country.