Six US fighter jets destroyed in Prince Harry base attack

[Jinnah]

KABUL: Six US 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 US Army uniforms and armed with guns, rockets and suicide vests who managed to storm the airfield, was unprecedented.

Three coalition refuelling 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 US-led NATO force said.

In a statement, it said the attack was "well-coordinated" and carried out by around 15 insurgents, who were organised 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.

Six US fighter jets destroyed in Prince Harry base attack - geo.tv

 

[rockstarIN]

A big hit to US military power since Nam, if its true.

Any news out which air crafts are destroyed?

 

[Oldman1]

A big hit to US military power since Nam, if its true.

Any news out which air crafts are destroyed?

Harriers, and I doubt its big hit since Nam since we lost more aircraft during Gulf War and Kosovo War.

 

[Aslan]

Why am I not so surprised over the lack of interest on this thread, and the ones like it since yesterday. Well lets start,
The american army has been infiltrated by the talibans, sounds familiar.
Afghanistan should be invaded by some some world power because the americans cant even handle their own any more.
American nuclear arsenal is not safe.
Bla bla bla.
So now I wonder what that so called experts on Pakistan have to say.

 

[Oldman1]

Why am I not so surprised over the lack of interest on this thread, and the ones like it since yesterday. Well lets start,
The american army has been infiltrated by the talibans, sounds familiar.
Afghanistan should be invaded by some some world power because the americans cant even handle their own any more.
American nuclear arsenal is not safe.
Bla bla bla.
So now I wonder what that so called experts on Pakistan have to say.

Well trained, well equipped and in uniform. Only one power can make this possible. Pakistan!!! No way can the Taliban do this. Has to be Pakistani trained.

 

[Brain-Storm]

Insurgent fighters wearing U.S. Army uniforms breached the defenses of the main British-run air base in southern Afghanistan on Friday. Firing guns and rockets and apparently triggering suicide vests, the attackers killed two U.S. Marines and damaged or destroyed several hangars and fueling facilities. Before they were all killed or captured, the insurgents also managed to destroy six U.S. Marine Corps jet fighters and “significantly” damage two others, landing a shocking blow against NATO air power in the region.

The attack on Camp Bastion, in restive Helmand province, came after the Taliban vowed to take revenge for the release by a mysterious U.S. filmmaker of an inflammatory, albeit amateurish, movie mocking the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The insurgent group had also threatened to kill or capture the U.K.’s Prince Harry, who recently deployed to Camp Bastion as an Apache helicopter pilot. The prince “was never in any danger,” NATO’s International Security Assistance Force stated.

The assailants’ true motives are impossible to verify. In any event, the attack underscores the Afghan insurgency’s boldness and striking power in the waning years of the U.S.-led NATO intervention.

The assault began “shortly after 10:00 p.m.” when “approximately 15″ insurgents — organized in three teams and wearing American uniforms — “penetrated at one point of the perimeter fence” and “executed a well-coordinated attack against the airfield,” according to ISAF. The Harrier jump jets destroyed or damaged in the assault had been parked out in the open on the flightline, the alliance stated.

The Harriers reportedly belonged to Marine Attack Squadron 211, based in Yuma, Arizona. VMA-211 had shifted its Harrier jump jets to Bastion from nearby Kandahar in July, in order to better support the British troops and Marines operating from Bastion. Harrier squadrons typically deploy with 10 jets, meaning all but two of VMA-211′s planes are now out of action. Despite this, ISAF unconvincingly insisted there would be “no impact to ground or air operations from Camp Bastion.”

Startlingly, the six destroyed Harriers represent no less than 1/15th of the Marines’ entire inventory of the versatile, vertical-landing jets. The F-35B version of the stealthy Joint Strike Fighter is slated to replace the Harrier over the next 15 years.

Nine NATO personnel — eight military and one civilian — were injured in addition to the two Marines who died. One of those killed was from VMA-211, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Base defenders killed 14 of the attackers and captured one. “This information is subject to change as new details become available,” ISAF warned.

The Bastion attack is not the first time insurgents have targeted NATO aircraft. Last month a rocket damaged an Air Force C-17 cargo plane assigned to carry Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey on his Afghanistan tour. Two maintainers were injured in that strike. And in 2005 a rocket barrage aimed at Kandahar Air Field destroyed a British Harrier and damaged another.

Nor is Friday’s attack the first perpetrated by insurgents disguised as U.S. troops. In 2010, following a spate of such attacks, the Pentagon ordered the Army to begin treating stocks of uniforms as “sensitive” and remove them from “pilferable” ground resupply convoys moving through Pakistan. “There is evidence that the enemy is using pilfered out-garment uniform items to gain a tactical advantage,” the Pentagon warned.

It’s unclear to what extent that advantage factored into the Bastion attack. In any event, the death and destruction wrought on a heavily-defended NATO base by just 15 determined attackers is a chilling reminder of the insurgency’s enduring potency.
Insurgents Posed as U.S. Troops to Strike at NATO Air Base | Danger Room | Wired.com

 

[Aslan]

Well trained, well equipped and in uniform. Only one power can make this possible. Pakistan!!! No way can the Taliban do this. Has to be Pakistani trained.

Present proof or this is just as much a conspiracy to defame Pakistan, as u americans claim when ur trained dogs hit our bases. OOPS! sounds familiar.

 

[AUz]

" 6 U.S Fighter Aircrafts and 3 refueling stations were destroyed in the attack. Two more aircrafts were "significantly" damaged. "


ISI and CIA should coperate more with eachother to curb such attacks... Pakistan's base also came under-attack ....

 

[rockstarIN]

Harriers, and I doubt its big hit since Nam since we lost more aircraft during Gulf War and Kosovo War.

yes, but not to 15 men.

 

[Oldman1]

Present proof or this is just as much a conspiracy to defame Pakistan, as u americans claim when ur trained dogs hit our bases. OOPS! sounds familiar.

Indeed sounds familiar when you blame on us for the attacks on your based cause you said its impossible unless there is foreign backing.

 

[Oldman1]

yes, but not to 15 men.

Takes 1 person to shoot down an aircraft.

 

[Aslan]

Indeed sounds familiar when you blame on us for the attacks on your based cause you said its impossible unless there is foreign backing.

Yes but this time the shoe ended up on the other foot.

But in all seriousness, all the people who talk all kinds of gibberish when it happens in Pakistan should open their eyes and see that it is not as simple as they conceive it to be.

 

[AUz]

Well trained, well equipped and in uniform. Only one power can make this possible. Pakistan!!! No way can the Taliban do this. Has to be Pakistani trained.

Well lets see : well trained , well-equipped , and in Pakistan's military Uniform...Only one power can make this possible...USA!!!!!! No way TTP can do this. Has to be US trained.

So you started it first ...

 

[rockstarIN]

Takes 1 person to shoot down an aircraft.

In the war field, it is..not in your own air base.

 

[Jinnah]

Present proof or this is just as much a conspiracy to defame Pakistan, as u americans claim when ur trained dogs hit our bases. OOPS! sounds familiar.

Or it might be the response of attacks on Pakistani bases? You destroy ours we destroy yours, clear message :