Taliban armed with suicide vests, guns and rockets stormed a heavily fortified airfield in Afghanistan where Prince Harry is deployed, killing two US Marines and attacking aircraft in a major security breach.

The assault had nothing to do with the prince

The militia, which is leading a 10-year insurgency against 117,000 Nato troops, said it carried out the assault to avenge a US-made film deemed insulting to Islam that has sparked deadly riots across the Middle East and North Africa.

The attack on Camp Bastion in southern Helmand province, one of the toughest battlegrounds of the war, started at 7.45pm on Friday and the base was cleared yesterday morning, said US Army Major Adam Wojack.

Prince Harry was never in danger, officials confirmed. Although the Taliban have vowed to kill the third in line to the British throne, one of its spokesmen told AFP that the assault “had nothing to do with the prince”.

General Sayed Malook, head of the Afghan army in the south, said a suicide bomber blasted a hole in the perimeter wall, allowing insurgents to storm inside with guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

“As soon as they entered the base, fighting started. Afghan forces were not involved, they only helped to extinguish the fire,” General Malook told AFP.

A fuel reservoir and an aircraft hangar were set alight and it took until dawn to extinguish the blaze, he said.

The US-led Nato forces said multiple aircraft and “structures” were damaged in the assault on the airfield, which is used by both American and British forces.

Eighteen insurgents were killed – including the suicide bomber – and another was wounded and captured, said Major Wojack. They were dressed in camouflage, he said, but declined to say whether it was Afghan army uniform.

A defence official in Washington said two US marines were killed, while Nato’s US-led International Security Assistance Force said some personnel were wounded.

The British defence ministry described the attack, on the eastern side of the runway, as “significant”. It said personnel were afterwards subject to a “lockdown” as the base was secured.