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Harrier destroyed by Afghan rocket
An RAF Harrier was destroyed and another has been damaged in a rocket attack in Afghanistan, it emerged yesterday.
The jets were on the ground at a military airfield at Kandahar in the south of the country when they were damaged early on Friday morning.
First reports of the attack from the Ministry of Defence made no mention of the damage to the aircraft and failed to disclose that one of them had been destroyed.
The RAF has only six Harrier GR7A jets - each worth £20 million - in Afghanistan, all of them from No 3 (Fighter) Squadron based at RAF Cottesmore, Lincolnshire.
The aircraft have been based at Kandahar since September last year and have been widely used on reconnaissance missions and to help special forces in the hunt for members of the ousted Taliban regime.
The MoD confirmed last night that the jets had been damaged.
One aircraft is being repaired at the airfield and the other has been replaced by another fighter which flew out from Britain on Friday evening.
A spokesman denied that the MoD had tried to conceal the fact that the aircraft had been damaged.
The attacked marks a significant escalation in the security situation in Afghanistan.
Next April more than 3,500 British troops will be deployed into the south of Afghanistan to launch operations against drug barons.
Gruß,K-Man