September 2012 Camp Bastion raid

The September 2012 Camp Bastion raid was a Taliban raid that killed two United States Marine Corps (USMC) service personnel and destroyed or severely damaged eight USMC McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier IIs at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan's Helmand province on the night of 14 September 2012.

The raid
The raid was a complex and coordinated assault by 15 Taliban fighters dressed in United States Army uniforms using several types of weapons which took place on the eastern side of Camp Bastion near to the USMC aircraft hangars at 22:00 local time (17:30 GMT). The assault team penetrated the perimeter of the camp, guarded by troops from Tonga, and separated into three teams to carry out the attack. One team engaged a group of USMC mechanics from VMM-161 who were in the area; the same team had attacked the aircraft refueling stations. Another group attacked the aircraft, and the last group was engaged at the base cryogenics compound. The group that attacked the aircraft attached explosive charges to several of the jets, then fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at several others.

The attackers were defeated after a four-hour firefight by USMC personnel and No. 51 Squadron RAF Regiment with helicopter support supplied by a British AgustaWestland Apache, and USMC Bell AH-1W SuperCobras and machine-gun equipped UH-1s, which took off while under fire from the insurgents. The RAF troops, who were located on the opposite side of the base, arrived at the scene approximately 12 minutes after the attack began. Some of the pilots from VMA-211 also fought as infantrymen, the first time the squadron had done this since the Battle of Wake Island after most of their planes had been destroyed in a surprise Japanese raid. Marines from VMM-161 killed one group of five Taliban with small arms fire as they tried to advance down the flightline area. A second group of five insurgents were flushed out of hiding hours later and shot by USMC forces in a compound near their entry point. The final group of five insurgents was detected near the flightline hours later and four were killed by gunfire from hovering helicopters. The fifth insurgent was injured and captured.

During the early portion of the fighting, the Marine Attack Squadron 211 (VMA-211) squadron commander, Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Raible, 40, was killed while personally leading an attack on the infiltrators, armed only with his pistol. Killed nearby was USMC mechanic Sergeant Bradley Atwell, 27, while taking cover behind Ground Support Equipment on the Flight Line. Atwell and Raible were killed by a single RPG round which exploded in the air above them. Eight coalition troops and one civilian contractor were injured. Six AV-8B Harrier IIs and a United States Air Force C-130 were destroyed and another two Harriers severely damaged. Three refuelling stations were destroyed and six soft-skin aircraft hangars damaged.

Aftermath
The attack was described as "the worst loss of U.S. airpower in a single incident since the Vietnam War." The eight destroyed or damaged aircraft constituted six percent of the USMC's inventory of Harrier attack jets. Normal attrition of the USMC's Harrier jets is around two airframes a year. To replace the aircraft lost in the attack, the USMC deployed 14 Harriers to Afghanistan within 36 hours of the raid.

The Taliban claimed that it was in response to the film Innocence of Muslims, and have also stated that Prince Harry, who was stationed at the base at the time, was the target of the attack. Also in a press statement released on 15 September, they claimed that the assault was carried out by two units: the "Khalid ibn al Walid group" and the "Omar bin al Khattab group" and far higher loss on the ISAF forces had been inflicted.

The BBC claimed that the attack "bore all the hallmarks of the Haqqani network". The ISAF claimed a week later that it had captured one of the raid's planners.

USMC response
Marine Major General Charles M. Gurganus was in charge of the base defenses and had reduced the number of Marines patrolling the base perimeter from 325 to 100 one month before the attack. After pressure from the families of those killed or injured in the battle, the US Senate put Gurganus' promotion to Lieutenant General on hold. On 30 September 2013, USMC Commandant James F. Amos announced that he had found Gurganus and USMC Major General Gregg A. Sturdevant to be accountable for failures of the base defenses during the raid. Sturdevant was in charge of USMC aviation assets in that region of Afghanistan. Both were directed to retire from the USMC immediately at their current ranks of Major General.

The Marine Corps stated Gurganus "bore final accountability for the lives and equipment under his charge," and he "made an error in judgment when conducting his risk assessment of the enemy's capabilities and intentions." Sturdevant, the USMC said, "did not adequately assess the force protection situation".

Both men will retire honorably and with full benefits. According to NBC News, a senior U.S. defense official remarked that if Gurganus was not a general he would have faced a court martial, which would have prevented retirement with full benefits. "Marines are dead and six aircraft were destroyed. A Lance Corporal would fry for a lot less than that," NBC quoted the official saying.