Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey (C) poses at NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters in Kabul on Monday.
By NBC News staff and wire reports
An aircraft used by U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Martin Dempsey was damaged by rocket-fire at an airbase in Afghanistan, NATO said on Tuesday. The general was not on board at the time and no one was injured.
At around 1 a.m. (4:30 p.m. ET) on Tuesday, insurgents fired rockets into the base?s airfield, a source in Bagram Air Field outside Kabul told NBC News.? Two landed in the air field and another hit the plane used by Dempsey, the source added.?
A new plane was brought in for Dempsey and he and his crew departed later in the morning.
Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads
"(Dempsey) was nowhere near the aircraft. We think it was a lucky shot," Colonel Thomas Collins told Reuters.
Dempsey was on a two-day visit to Afghanistan.
The aircraft was only being used temporarily by Dempsey and his staff. The rockets also damaged a nearby helicopter.?
Bagram targeted
Dempsey had been in the country for talks with NATO and Afghan commanders on a string of recent rogue shootings.?
Bagram is occasionally targeted with rockets and mortar shells fired by insurgents from surrounding hills and fields.?
What's leading Afghan troops to turn on coalition forces?
Sporadic attacks also occur at NATO's other main airbase in Afghanistan, Kandahar Airfield, in the volatile south, although they rarely cause deaths or major damage.?
Before leaving Afghanistan, Dempsey met his Afghan counterpart, General Sher Mohammad Karimi, who raised the issue of insider attacks by rogue forces that have killed 10 American troops in the past two weeks.?
NBC's Atia Abawai explains what's behind the worsening attacks on U.S. military personnel by Afghan security and military to NBC's Andrea Mitchell.
"In the past, it's been us pushing on them to make sure they do more," he said on Monday. "This time, without prompting, when I met General Karimi, he started with a conversation about insider attacks -- and, importantly, insider attacks not just against us, but insider attacks against the Afghans, too."?
NBC News' Atia Abawi, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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