U.S. official’s plane target of rocket fire
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 Defense Jim Mattis.
An Afghan woman was killed and 11 civilians were wounded in the attack. Afghan special forces managed to repel the attackers, killing four in an ensuing gunbattle, officials said.
Mattis was meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the time of the attack, along with visiting NATO SecretaryGeneral Jens Stoltenberg. It was not immediately known if Mattis’ plane was hit or damaged.
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.
Najib Danish, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the Taliban fired up to about six projectiles at and near the airport, hitting both the international and the military sector of the sprawling hub and also two civilian houses nearby. The gunbattle with Afghan special forces left “four of the terrorists dead,” he said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet that the “military section of the Kabul airport was hit with missiles; target was plane of U.S. Defense Secretary Mattis” and that “losses (were) caused” in the attack.
Ghani said during a joint news conference with Mattis and Stoltenberg that Afghan special forces troops quickly brought the assault under control. Mattis called the attack “a crime” during the news conference, which was broadcast live.
Stoltenberg denounced the attack as a “terrorist act” that shows the militants’ “weakness.”
Tumor Shah Hamedi, director of Kabul airport, said all flights were halted as a result of the attack.
Both Mattis and Stoltenberg pledged continued support for Afghanistan and vowed to do everything possible so the country “doesn’t again become a safe haven for international terrorists.”
Stoltenberg said NATO is aware of “the cost of staying in Afghanistan, but the cost of leaving would be even higher.”
“If NATO forces leave too soon, there is a risk that Afghanistan may return to a state of chaos and once again become a safe haven for international terrorism,” he said. Rahim Faiez is an Associated Press writer.