The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the rocket attack that struck at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, traveled to Afghanistan aboard the C-17 that was damaged in the attack. He traveled there on Aug. 19, but was nowhere neart the aircraft when the incident occurred. The damage to the aircraft was confined to the nose of the plane and to one engine.

The chairman was never in any danger from the attack, and there was no indication the insurgents targeted the general, officials said.

The attack consisted of two rockets that landed on the flightline at the base around 2 am. Two airmen were injured in the attack. Their injuries included cuts and bruises. A helicopter was also slightly damaged in the attack.

The Taliban claimed the attack was targetting Dempsey’s aircraft, but NATO sources say that the damage to the craft was almost certainly by chance and that Dempsey’s aircraft had no unique markings on it and it was virtually indistinguishable from any other aircraft of its type on the flight line.

“Indirect fire rocket or mortar attacks at Bagram airport are not unusual and there is no indication that this was a targeted attack,” said a military spokesman, Martin Crighton. “One of the rounds just happened to land in the vicinity of General Dempsey’s plane.

General Dempsey left the base on another aircraft.