Deadly rocket attacks tear through heart of Kabul
Surge of violence may ‘damage the prestige’ of Ghani’s administration, analyst says
At least eight civilians were killed and dozens injured after more than 20 rockets struck various parts of Kabul during rush hour on Saturday, with officials saying the latest act of violence was “terrorism.”
“The terrorists fired 23 rockets with regret on residential parts of the city today … initial findings show that at least eight people were martyred and 31 wounded,” Interior Ministry spokesman, Tariq Aryan, told Arab News. Several had been rushed to various hospitals with the Italian-run Emergency Hospital saying that it alone was treating 28 injured.
The Taliban denied involvement in the attack which no other group had claimed responsibility for either as of reporting time.
Aryan added that the rockets, “highly likely BM 12s,” were fired from “two vehicles in two parts of the city,” landing in multiple, heavily populated areas, including near the secure Green Zone which houses several embassies. Hawkers and pedestrians were among the majority of casualties, public health officials told Arab News.
At the same time, a source — requesting anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media — said that two of first VP Amrullah Saleh’s guards were also wounded after one of the rockets landed close to the VP’s office.
Saturday’s attack is similar to a couple of others in Kabul in recent months.
The first one was in March
— aimed at derailing President Ashraf Ghani’s swearing-in ceremony — and another a few weeks ago targeting the iconic Kabul University, with more than 30 killed in the strike. Affiliates of Daesh claimed responsibility for both. It came amid a surge of violence across Afghanistan in recent months and took place a day after media reports said that a
“breakthrough was expected” to be announced in the intra-Afghan talks in Doha, after more than two months of a deadlock in negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan government representatives. According to the Interior Ministry, more than 1,200 civilians have died in various strikes across the country since the talks began on Sept. 12, despite a pledge by both groups to reduce violence.
While the government blames the Taliban for the spike in attacks, human rights officials have also held Afghan forces responsible for civilians deaths, alleging that most of them were caused by air raids. Witnesses and residents said that while Kabul has been the scene of “far deadlier and complex raids for years,” an attack where assailants fire rockets from one part of the city to another was “a relatively new method.”