A US military plane used to escort a senior army general came under rocket fire from the Taliban in the latest propaganda coup for the militants.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, was not close to the aircraft that was damaged in the attack on a US base, officials said.
It comes a week after the Taliban claimed to have shot down an American helicopter.
And it follows a series of killings of US military trainers by their Afghan partners or militants dressed in Afghan uniform.
Such attacks have claimed the lives of 10 Americans in the past two weeks.
The latest incident happened on Monday night at Bagram Air Field outside Kabul.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said they were responsible - Gen Dempsey's plane was targeted by insurgents "using exact information" about where it would be.
Two maintenance workers were slightly injured by shrapnel from the two rockets, a coalition spokesman said.
The general "was nowhere near" the plane when the rockets hit near where the aircraft was parked, the spokesman added.
He cast doubt on suggestions that the plane was hit by a precision attack.
The spokesman said insurgent rocket and mortar attacks are "not infrequent" at the base, and usually come from so far away they would be impossible to target accurately.
A helicopter on the base was also damaged in the attack, according to Nato.
Gen Dempsey was in Afghanistan to discuss the state of the war and has since left on a different plane.
