MoD has 'serious questions' to answer over Camp Bastion raid

Senior military figures and politicians are calling on the Ministry of Defence to mount an investigation into a catastrophic attack on Britain’s main base in Afghanistan. The calls come as the Commons Defence Select Committee considers an inquiry into the incident, amid claims that British commanders failed to properly protect Camp Bastion.

Fifteen heavily armed Taliban got past an empty watchtower and reached the airfield at the base last September. In the five-hour battle that followed, two US Marines were killed, 16 soldiers wounded and almost an entire squadron of Harrier jets destroyed. The US subsequently took over responsibility for security from the British, and a major US Army investigation into the attack prompted the sacking of two of its generals earlier this month. The full report was sent to the UK.

But MoD officials rejected the findings. James Arbuthnot, chair of the Defence Select Committee, asked to see the British reports into the attack, and pledged further action. “It is a most serious issue which we shall not be dropping,” he said.

The shadow Defence Secretary, Vernon Coaker, said the findings raised “serious questions and concerns”. “They cannot be easily dismissed and require full and frank answers from the Ministry of Defence.”

Colonel Stuart Tootal OBE, awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) after leading the 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan in 2006, said: “I would back an inquiry, not least as it is important to learn the lessons from the incident.”

General Lord Richard Dannatt, former chief of the general staff, said: “I am surprised there [does] not appear to have been an inquiry into the attack on Camp Bastion, especially since the US Marine Corps has had such an inquiry, resulting in two generals being sacked – and I thought the UK had the lead on the security of the base.”

The former Armed Forces Minister, Sir Nick Harvey, commented: “The Defence Select Committee’s request to see the UK’s reports into the Camp Bastion raid makes sense amid concerns about the differences between UK and US responses, and if they conclude that an inquiry is necessary for justice to be done then that will be a reasonable response.”

Lt-Col Chris “Otis” Raible, commander of the US Harrier jet squadron at the base, was one of two US marines killed in the attack. His mother Kim, a real estate agent from Pennsylvania, accused the Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, and General Sir Nick Houghton, Chief of the Defence Staff, of a “total disregard” and “arrogance and total lack of empathy” over what happened. “I am in total disbelief that the UK saw no apparent need to do a proper investigation and hold its own commanders to account,” she said.

“The actions of Mr Hammond, UK commanders and the officials who refused to pay for extra security on Camp Bastion were not only cowardly, but also the direct cause of these deaths, injuries, and loss of aircraft and equipment that night,” she said.