Rockets strike capital in latest spike of violence

The Associated Press Rockets slammed into the heart of the capital of Kabul on Tuesday as President Ashraf Ghani delivered a speech marking a Muslim holiday, the latest in a series of brazen attacks that highlighted Afghanistan’s deteriorating security.

No injuries were reported from the mortar rounds that hit in the diplomatic quarter; one struck near the presidential palace, another near a NATO compound and the U.S. Embassy, according to police official Jan Agha.

In response, Afghan helicopter gunships bombed the house from which the rockets were believed to have been launched. Hours later, at least two militants were reported killed.

The booms of the mortar rounds echoed during the live broadcast of Ghani’s speech commemorating the Eid al-Adha holiday, and the president interrupted his remarks to say: “If they are thinking the rocket attack will keep Afghans down, they are wrong.”

The attack came amid an unrelenting wave of deadly violence across the country in recent weeks and dealt another blow to Ghani’s efforts to revive peace talks to end the 17-year war. He had offered a holiday cease-fire Sunday, saying it would take effect only if the Taliban reciprocated.

An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility, saying its fighters had fired the shells that struck the heavily fortified Kabul neighborhood. There was no comment from the Taliban.

The Interior Ministry launched an investigation into the security breach.

Former Interior Minister Noorul Haq Olomi blamed political squabbling inside Ghani’s government for distracting the president’s attention from security matters, allowing the neardaily violence by insurgents to continue.

“The deaths every day of our security forces is a big calamity for our country,” said Olomi, now a defense analyst.

He also blamed neighboring Pakistan, saying that the international community has done too little to force Islamabad to shut down havens for terrorist groups inside its territory.

The U.S. and Afghanistan also have routinely alleged that Pakistan harbors Taliban insurgents,

Pakistan denies the allegation and says some of the deadliest terrorist attacks on its territory have been plotted by the Islamic State affiliate based in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan security forces — aided by U.S. air support — have repeatedly struck Islamic State redoubts in Nangarhar in recent months with some success, although the group still has been able to carry out attacks. Last week, it claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 34 high school graduates, most of them Shiites, who were taking university entrance exams in Kabul. The Islamic State affiliate is known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, the ancient name of an area that once spanned parts of Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

In Islamabad, new Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the rocket attack.