U.S. responds to Taliban airport attack with airstrike

KABUL— The Taliban unleashed a barrage of rockets at the Kabul international airport on Wednesday in a brazen attack that the insurgents said targeted the plane of visiting U.S. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis.

In response, the U.S. said it launched two missiles, one of which missed its intended target and killed at least one Afghan civilian.

Afghan officials said one Afghan woman was killed and 11 civilians were wounded in the Taliban attack. Afghan special forces managed to repel the attackers, killing four in an ensuing gun battle, officials said.

Later, the U.S. military issued a statement saying that it had responded with an airstrike.

“Tragically, one of the missiles malfunctioned, causing several casualties,” the U.S. command said.

Navy Capt. William Salvin, spokesperson for the U.S.-led military coalition, said that the U.S. fired two Hellfire missiles. One struck its intended target, a building from which the insurgents had launched their mortar attack. The other one was programmed to hit the same target but went astray for unknown reasons.

The U.S.-led coalition expressed regret for the civilian casualties.

Mattis was meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the time of the attack, along with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Mattis’ plane was not hit.

The attack — both its location, the Kabul airport, and the purported target, a visiting U.S. official’s plane — underscored the ability of the insurgents to still stage high-profile attacks despite Afghan security forces’ struggle to stem Taliban gains.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that the “military section of the Kabul airport was hit with missiles; target was plane of U.S. Defence Secretary Mattis” and that “losses (were) caused” in the attack.