Top US General's Plane Hit by Rocket in Afghanistan

Afghan militants fired into the sprawling Bagram airbase in Afghanistan on Monday night damaging an aircraft used by U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Martin Dempsey.

According to NATO senior spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins, Dempsey "was nowhere near the aircraft. We think it was a lucky shot." Two US maintenance crew members were injured in the attack.

Reutersreports that "Dempsey, who had been in the country for talks with NATO and Afghan commanders on a string of recent rogue shootings, was sleeping in his quarters when the rounds struck and left the country afterwards on another aircraft."

The "string of recent rogue shootings" refers to a flurry of "green on blue" attacks, a pattern of ongoing and increasing attacks by Afghan forces on occupation troops.

Tom Engelhardt, editor of TomDispatch.com, previously wrote on the "green on blue attacks:"

"What we're seeing in the most violent form imaginable is a sweeping message from our Afghan allies, the very security forces Washington plans to continue bolstering up long after the 2014 drawdown date for U.S. 'combat forces' passes. To the extent that bullets can be translated into words, that message, uncompromising and bloody-minded, would be something like: your mission's failed, get out or die."