CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, narrowly avoided an airport tarmac encounter Wednesday with an Afghan carrying gasoline and a lighter in a stolen pickup truck.
The security breach marred the start of Panetta’s first day in the country, which also included a Pentagon announcement that a US soldier suspected of killing 16 civilians last weekend had been flown out of the country.
A military source told FOX News Channel the bizarre airport incident, which occurred as Panetta’s plane was coming in to land, was no accident but he couldn’t be sure the local Afghan driver knew the Defense Secretary was aboard the aircraft.
FOX reported the potential attacker was an Afghan interpreter who was carrying gasoline and a lighter with him in a pickup truck he stole from a British service member. The coalition member was injured during the incident, possibly run over by the truck.
After crashing the truck into a ditch, the driver got out and apparently lit himself on fire, the source said.
He was taken to a military hospital with burns over most of his body. No explosives were found in the truck.
Potentially further complicating Panetta’s visit, the Pentagon announced Wednesday that the US soldier suspected of carrying out a door-to-door massacre last weekend had been flown out of Afghanistan. FOX News Channel, citing army sources, said he was in Kuwait.
Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby told FOX the decision to remove him was made because there was no appropriate detention facility inside the country.
Afghan political leaders have demanded the still unidentified sergeant, who had served two tours in Iraq, be put on public trial in Afghanistan.
Before Panetta spoke to coalition and Afghan troops, Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus ordered US Marines to leave their weapons outside the tent where he was speaking, FOX reported.
The move was a marked change in procedure since Marines previously were not told to disarm during such meetings. When asked about the switch, Gurganus, who is new in his post, said simply, “there’s a new sheriff in town.”
He also said the Afghan soldiers in attendance were unarmed and he did not want them treated differently.
In his remarks to troops, Panetta described last month’s Koran burning incident, Sunday’s shootings by the US soldier and attacks on coalition troops by Afghan soldiers as “deeply troubling,” but he insisted it would not be allowed to undo NATO and Afghan progress against the Taliban.
“We will not allow individual incidents to undermine our resolve,” Panetta added. “We will be tested, we will be challenged by the enemy … by ourselves and by the hell of war.”
In Washington, US President Barack Obama echoed his remarks, saying there were no plans for “sudden” changes to a scheduled timetable for troop withdrawal.
Obama said the United States would stick with the timing agreed with NATO partners, in which Afghan forces take over security for the whole country by the end of 2014, AFP reported.
“I don’t anticipate at this stage that we’re going to be making any sudden additional changes to the plan that we currently have,” Obama told a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron.