Secretary of Defense James Mattis arrived in Afghanistan over night for talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ashraf Ghani, the President of Afghanistan. Missiles hit the Kabul Airport, named after former President Hamid Karzai, several hours after Mattis landed. According to the Washington Examiner:

Militants fired rockets near Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, today, hours after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis landed on a surprise visit to the country. Mattis and the official party had already left the area when the attack occurred. Both the Taliban and ISIS-Khorasan, the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to SITE Intelligence Group. No casualties have been reported.

One India News filed this video report:

According to USA Today:

Missiles hit the Hamid Karzai International Airport hours after Mattis and Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, arrived in Kabul for talks with Afghan officials and to meet U.S. forces, according to TOLOnews.

“At 11.36 am two missiles were fired on Kabul International Airport from Deh Sabz district, damaging the air force hangers and destroying one helicopter and damaging three other helicopters, but there were no casualties,” said Kabul airport chief Yaqub Rassouli, according to media reports.

Also in the delegation were General John Nicholson, Commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan and former Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison who is our Ambassador to Nato. The delegation was in Afghanistan to discuss how the multi-national forces would continue to back and train the Afghanistan military and police. The epically quotable for Marine General, Secretary Mattis said:

“With our new conditions-based south Asia strategy we will be better postured to support [Afghanistan] as your forces turn the tide against the terrorists,” Mattis said during a visit to Kabul Wednesday “We will not abandon Afghanistan to a merciless enemy trying to kill its way to power.”

According to additional reporting five people were injured in the Kabul airport attack, but there were no casualties. Both ISIS and the Taliban have claimed responsibility which means they have no idea and it was probably some guy, and his goat, with a rocket launcher.

While many in the media love to point out that we have been fighting in Afghanistan for sixteen years, one simply does not leave the field of battle because one has been there a long time. As General/Secretary Mattis has said himself:

“No war is over until the enemy says it’s over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.”

With Secretary Mattis at the helm of the Department of Defense, we have a good shot at winning.