Brazen Taliban attack on jets is war's costliest loss of materiel - Minneapolis Star Tribune

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - An audacious Taliban attack on a heavily fortified base in southern Afghanistan did far more damage than initially reported, destroying or severely damaging eight attack jets in the most destructive single strike on Western materiel in the 11-year war, military officials said Sunday.

While other attacks have caused greater loss of life, the assault late Friday at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, one of the largest and best-defended posts in Afghanistan, was troubling to NATO because the attackers were able to penetrate the base, killing two U.S. Marines and causing more than $200 million in damage. "We're saying it's a very sophisticated attack," said a military official. "We've lost aircraft in battle, but nothing like this."

'They are not ... yokels'

The attack, which NATO officials said was conducted by three tightly choreographed teams of militants wearing Army uniforms, was a reminder that the Taliban remains capable of serious assaults.

Together with a rash of attacks by Afghan security forces against NATO troops -- including two over the weekend that killed six coalition service members, four of them U.S. troops -- the Taliban has put new pressure on the U.S. withdrawal plan, which calls for accelerated troop pullouts through 2014 while training Afghan forces to take over.

At the same time, tensions with the government flared Sunday as President Hamid Karzai condemned the deaths of eight Afghan women and girls in airstrikes in Laghman Province. NATO's International Security Assistance Force acknowledged the civilian deaths and "takes full responsibility for this tragedy," a statement said.

The military investigation into the attack at Bastion is now trying to uncover whether the insurgents had help from inside the camp and whether they were trained or aided by neighboring countries, such as Pakistan or Iran. But military officials and Afghan analysts said that the insurgents may well have prepared for their mission by studying easily available satellite images on the Internet.

"We don't underestimate the enemy," the military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation. "We know the enemy has limited capability to do these, but they are not a whole bunch of yokels running around the country."

The 15 insurgents conducting the attack lost no time from the moment they blew a hole in the perimeter at one of the closest points to the airfield, military officials said. They then raced toward their targets, shooting and setting fire to parked Navy AV-8B Harrier jets and destroying three refueling stations, even as a quick reaction force was mustering to fight them off, a military official said.

'A running gun battle'

"It was a running gun battle for a while, 2 1/2 hours, nonetheless they were able to get to the aircraft before we could intercept them," a military official said, noting that because it happened at night it was difficult until daylight to be sure that all the insurgents had been killed or captured. All but one was killed; the remaining insurgent is in custody, the military said.

Two Marines were killed in the attack, and nine coalition personnel, including a civilian contractor, were wounded, the military said in a statement. Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, is doing a tour of duty as a helicopter pilot and was stationed at Camp Bastion at the time of the attack but was not hurt.