Seeming more plausible, and I didn't connect the firings until now. Good point.

I'm thinking they used the rescue as cover to pull off a separate raid, which failed, and there was a sustained firefight at the airfield. It's unusual to have both an HC and MC-130 involved in a rescue operation along with MH-6 helicopters and everything else. That's a big operation compared to a typical rescue package and torching that equipment meant things went south in a hurry.

As a former C-130 loadmaster, I was bummed to see those planes destroyed. Expensive, but also extremely valuable operationally. That's a big loss.