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Military source calls incident at Afghanistan airport an ’attempted attack’

15 March 2012 03:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The crash of an unauthorized pickup truck at an airfield in Afghanistan where Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was landing was an attempted attack, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether Panetta was a target, APA reports quoting Fox News.

The strange incident Wednesday occurred on the tarmac at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan moments before Panetta arrived via C-17. Fox News’ source could not say whether the local Afghan behind the attempted attack knew Panetta was about to arrive.

The attacker was an Afghan interpreter who was carrying gasoline and a lighter with him in the pickup truck, which he managed to steal from a British service member, sources told Fox News. The coalition service member was injured during the incident, possibly run over by the truck.

The Afghan interpreter managed to drive the stolen vehicle over the very ramp where Panetta was set to arrive. The secretary was soon diverted to another ramp. After crashing the pickup truck into a ditch, the driver got out and had apparently lit himself on fire, according to this source.

Pentagon Spokesman George Little put out a statement earlier saying "no explosives were found."

The statement also said the driver is now in custody, and an investigation is under way.

Panetta was visiting Afghanistan to hold a series of meetings with troops and Afghan leaders in the wake of the killing of 16 Afghan civilians allegedly by a U.S. soldier.

"We will not allow individual incidents to undermine our resolve to that mission," he told Marines at Camp Leatherneck. "We will be tested, we will be challenged, we’ll be challenged by our enemy, we’ll be challenged by ourselves, we’ll be challenged by the hell of war itself. But none of that, none of that, must ever deter us from the mission that we must achieve."

Panetta and other U.S. officials say the shooting spree should not derail the U.S. and NATO strategy of a gradual withdrawal of troops by the end of 2014. But it has further soured relations with war-weary Afghans, jeopardizing the U.S. strategy of working closely with Afghan forces on the transition.

Curiously, the more than 200 Marines who attended were told to take their weapons outside and leave them there before the speech.

"Something has come to light," Sgt. Maj. Brandon Hall told the troops. Asked about the order, Hall said all he knew was that "I was told to get the weapons out."

A U.S. defense official said the request was not a reaction to an immediate threat. The official said the decision was made out of respect for troops from other countries, such as the Afghans, who are never allowed to bring guns into an event. It was not a request from Panetta or his security team, the official said.