SEPT. 16, 2012
Audacious Raid on NATO Base Shows Taliban's Reach
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
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 matériel 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 Marines and causing more than $200 million in damage. "We're saying it's a very sophisticated attack," said a military official here. "We've lost aircraft in battle, but nothing like this."
The complex attack, which NATO officials said was conducted by three tightly choreographed teams of militants wearing American Army uniforms, was a reminder that the Taliban remain capable of serious assaults despite the "surge" offensive against them. Now the offensive is over, and nearly 10,000 American Marines have left Helmand Province, a critical stronghold for the Taliban, over the past several months.
Together with a rash of attacks by Afghan security forces against NATO troops — including two over the weekend that left at least six coalition service members dead — the Taliban have put new pressure on the American 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 Afghan women in airstrikes and criticized the continued American custody of hundreds of Afghan prisoners.
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, which have allowed the Taliban to take refuge on their territory. But military officials and Afghan analysts said that the insurgents may well have prepared for their mission in significant measure by studying easily available satellite images on the Internet. "We don't underestimate the enemy," the military official said, speaking on the 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 Marine 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. "It was a running gun battle for a while, two and a half 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 American 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. Camp Bastion is home mostly to British soldiers, while the neighboring camp, known as Leatherneck, has American Marines and other service members.
Six of the jets, which each cost between $23 million and $30 million when they were first acquired by the United States Navy, according to a General Accounting Office report, were completely destroyed and two more were so severely damaged it was unlikely they could be repaired. Also badly damaged were three refueling stations and three soft-skinned aircraft hangars, the military said in a news release.
Determining how it was possible for the insurgents to penetrate and severely damage such a well-defended base, particularly one with clear lines of sight across miles of mostly flat plain, will be important in determining whether this was a unique attack or one that could be replicated either in targeting Western bases or Afghan ones, military experts said.
"The Taliban retain the command and military planning infrastructure to put together complex and sophisticated attacks," said Stephen Biddle, a professor at George Washington University with expertise in defense studies.
"If this is a clever surprise, it can't work twice; it tells you the people are clever and can do elaborate planning, using subterfuge and possibly captured uniforms," Mr. Biddle said. "It would be a different matter if they managed to blow a hole in a heavily defended perimeter — then the Afghan National Security Forces are looking at a big, big problem."
Wahid Mujda, an Afghan analyst who tracks the Taliban, said that despite the Taliban's statement that the attack was retaliation for an anti-Muslim video, the video almost certainly had nothing to do with it.
"I do not think that the Camp Bastion attack had anything to do with the anti-Prophet movie," Mr. Mujda said. "Given the sophistication of the attack one can say with a lot of confidence that the Taliban had been training, rehearsing and preparing for weeks and even months. Everything was not planned and decided overnight."
He predicted that the Afghan government and the international military forces here would see similar attacks in the future.
"They have experts, strategists, planners and designers, they have a great knowledge of the modern technology," Mr. Mujda said.
"My sources in the Taliban tell me that every time they want to attack an important target they use Google Maps and other available means for studying and understanding their targets."
This year's toll from what are known as insider or green-on-blue attacks — green being American military parlance for indigenous forces, blue for its own — has become one of the most visible signs of the challenges faced by the NATO-led coalition as it nears the end of its role in Afghanistan's war.
The second attack of the weekend, which was Sunday in Zabul Province, was the deadlier of the two latest incidents, with four coalition service members killed. The coalition said in a terse statement that the attack was "suspected to involve members of the Afghan police" and was under investigation.
Michael Cole, a coalition spokesman, said officials suspected the Afghan police in the attack because a police officer was killed in the firefight that ensued. But Mr. Cole said investigators were not yet certain whether the dead officer was one of the attackers or was caught in the cross-fire.
Afghan officials said they, too, were investigating.
The six deaths brought to 51 the number of coalition service members killed this year in insider attacks. The toll has already well exceeded last year's total of 35 killed in such violence.
The increase in attacks has prompted coalition and Afghan officials to step up their vetting of Afghan recruits, and coalition officials say the attacks are mostly driven by personal animosity. Still, at least a quarter are believed to be the result of Taliban infiltration or influence over soldiers and the police.
Matthew Rosenberg and Habib Zahori contributed reporting from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The New York Times
The Camp Bastion attack involved three tightly choreographed teams of militants.