The plane of the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff was attacked.

The plane carrying the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, was shot down by militants with a rocket.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff,
General Martin Dempsey. (Source: Getty Images)

On the night of August 20, militants fired two rockets at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, damaging the C-17 aircraft that was being used to transport General Martin Dempsey to Afghanistan, which was parked on the tarmac, according to Colonel Dave Lapan, a spokesman for General Martin Dempsey. The shrapnel damaged the plane's door. The attack only slightly injured two American maintenance workers. The spokesman said General Dempsey left the air base on another plane.

According to US military sources, Taliban insurgents rarely organize attacks and cause human damage to Bagram airbase.

General Martin Dempsey arrived in Afghanistan on August 20 to discuss with local officials and the commander of the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan the security situation, especially attacks believed to have been carried out by Afghan soldiers, police or gunmen in uniform against coalition forces.

Mr Dempsey's visit comes a day after a man dressed as an Afghan national policeman opened fire on US forces, killing a US soldier in the southern province of Kandahar. A NATO spokesman said 40 ISAF soldiers had been killed in similar attacks this year and the coalition had been put on 24-hour alert. Some of the attacks were blamed on Taliban fighters who had infiltrated government security forces, but NATO acknowledged many were due to cultural differences or conflicts between the coalition and local security forces.

Concerned about this form of attack, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last weekend asked Afghan President Hamid Karzai to increase cooperation with ISAF to prevent it.

NATO currently has about 130,000 troops on duty inAfghanistanand is scheduled to withdraw from the South Asian country in 2014. Mr. Dempsey said such attacks would not affect the withdrawal plan. However, there is no denying that the new wave of attacks is putting pressure on ISAF troop-contributing countries to find a way to withdraw from the nearly 11-year-old war.

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