Marines foil rocket attack
Royal Marines hunting al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan foiled a rocket attack on one of their forward operating bases, a RM spokesman said today.
Two 107mm rockets were discovered by a local warlord yesterday around 7km away from a staging post in the east of the country used as a logistical support base, Lt Col Ben Curry said from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.
They were rigged up to an improvised mortar base, with a crude water timer, he said.
The water would have dripped out of a container and once it was empty, a circuit would have been completed and the rockets fired at the base.
The warlord had dismantled the mortar base.
Lt Col Curry said: ‘‘It was a primitive timer and the way they were lined up was pretty inaccurate.
‘‘But it was a serious incident.
‘‘We have since withdrawn from the area, as we had planned to do before this incident.’’
