KABUL – Kabul city rocked after three rocket attacks on Tuesday which left three people wounded, officials said.
The assault, which took place near the presidential palace and a mosque, came as President Ashraf Ghani was making a speech marking the first day of the Eid-ul-Azha holiday, days after offering the Taliban a conditional three-month ceasefire.
Kabul police Spokesman Hashmat Staknikzai said that at least three people were wounded in the attacks, with police deployed to the area to find the launching site.
“Rockets were fired on Kabul city from an unknown direction and … hit residential areas near the mountains in PD5 (police district)”
According to reports, multiple rockets hit near the diplomatic area in Kabul early Tuesday, as officials said fighting had broken out between security forces and militants in the city’s old quarter.
Ministry of Interior spokesman Najib Danish said that the attackers appeared to be in a building behind the Eidgah Mosque in a central district of Kabul.
“Military helicopters were firing above the Eidgah Mosque in Reka Khana district, where smoke was rising as police and the clashes were underway, amid a heavy security presence near the Kabul Stadium”, he added.
The move followed an extraordinarily violent week in Afghanistan that saw that Taliban storm the provincial capital of Ghazni — just a two-hour drive from Kabul — and press the fight against security forces across the country, with estimates suggesting hundreds of people may have been killed.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, which came just days after President Ashraf Ghani offered the Taliban a three-month ceasefire.
The truce offer was welcomed by the United States and NATO after nearly 17 years of war, but the Taliban have yet to respond.
