By DPA,
Kabul : Eight rockets were fired into Kabul early Tuesday, wounding two people, while police defused a ninth one before it was launched, interior ministry said.
“This morning at around 4 a.m., there were eight rocket attacks on Kabul city, and these rockets hit different districts of Kabul city,” Zemrai Bashary told the German Press Agency dpa.
“Fortunately there were no heavy casualties, only two civilians, a child and a man, were wounded,” he said, adding, “The police have started an investigation into these rocket attacks.”
Bashary said that police units were immediately deployed to the area from where the rockets were fired, adding “fortunately… another rocket was discovered and defused.”
One of the rockets landed in Wazir Akbar Khan, a diplomatic enclave, where the headquarters of the NATO-led internationals forces and several embassies including those of the United States, Germany, Britain and France are located, a police official said.
Other rockets landed near the international airport, the city centre and in the eastern part of the city, where several NATO military camps are located.
Footage on Tolo, a private television channel, showed several houses and a car with their windows blown out in downturn Kabul.
The rockets were fired from Deh Sabz, on the northeastern outskirts of Kabul.
Tuesday’s attacks were the biggest in Kabul in several years.
The attacks in the Afghan capital came ahead of the Aug 20 presidential election after the government had said Kabul would be the safest locale for the voting in the country plagued by a Taliban-led insurgency.
The Taliban is boycotting the polls and has ordered all its fighters through a statement posted on its website last week to disrupt the election and intensify assaults on Afghan and international military targets.
“We expected that the enemies attack before the elections and they are doing this to dismantle the process, but we will never let them do that, we will never let the enemies fulfil their negative targets and aims,” Bashary said.
“This was a disturbing attack and we will investigate it,” he added.