US downs rockets fired at Kabul airport
Rocket fire, apparently targeting Kabul’s international airport, struck a nearby neighbourhood on Monday, the eve of the deadline for American troops to withdraw from the country’s longest war after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
The rockets did not halt the steady stream of US military C-17 cargo jets taking off and landing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in the Afghan capital. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Last week, the IS group launched a devastating suicide bombing at one of the airport gates that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 US service members.
Since the suicide bombing, the Taliban have tightened security cordon around the airfield, with their fighters seen just up to the last fencing separating them from the runway.
In the capital’s Chahr-e-Shaheed neighbourhood, a crowd quickly gathered around the remains of a four-door sedan used by the attackers, which had what appeared to be six homemade rocket tubes mounted where the backseat should be.
“I was inside the house with my children and other family members, suddenly there were some blasts,” said Jaiuddin Khan, who lives nearby. “We jumped into the house compound and lay on the ground.”
The rockets landed across town in Kabul’s Salim Karwan neighbourhood, striking residential apartment blocks, witnesses said.
In Washington, Capt Bill Urban, spokesman for the US military’s Central Command, said there were no US casualties. He said US forces used a defensive weapon known by the acronym C-RAM, a counter-rocket, artillery and mortar system, in response to the attack. It targeted the rockets in a whirling hail of ammunition, Urban said.
He said the Kabul airfield remains operational as the evacuation continued on Monday.
The United States is aware of reports of civilian casualties in Kabul following its drone strike on an explosive-laden vehicle headed towards the Hamid Karzai International Airport, the Pentagon said.
“We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul today,” Capt Bill Urban, spokesman of the US Central
Command, said.
“We are still assessing the results of this strike, which we know disrupted an imminent ISIS-K threat to the airport,” he added.
Urban said the US would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life in the strike.
“We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties. It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further,” he said.
At least 10 people, including children, were killed in the US airstrike that took place in Kabul on Sunday, stated a report.