Rockets fired at Kabul diplomatic area during Ashraf Ghani holiday speech
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Rockets were fired toward the presidential palace in Kabul on Tuesday as the Afghan president was delivering his holiday message for the Muslim celebrations of Eid al-Adha, police said. Two people were reportedly hospitalized with injuries from the attack.
The first rocket landed somewhere near the presidency, the second near a NATO compound and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, but no one was hurt, police official Jan Agha said.
The boom of the rockets was heard in the live broadcast of President Ashraf Ghani's speech. As he also heard the thud, Ghani interrupted his message to say: "If they are thinking the rocket attack will keep Afghans down, they are wrong."
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) later claimed responsibility for the attack.
The area where the rockets hit is one of the most secure in the heavily fortified part of Kabul, where embassies and Afghan government buildings are surrounded by high cement blast walls and coils of razor wire. Many streets near the U.S. Embassy are closed off, as well as those near sensitive government and military locations.
Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said Afghan police had noticed a suspicious vehicle earlier Tuesday and followed it to a mud-brick house near the sprawling Eid Gah mosque, where hundreds had gathered to pray during the Eid al-Adha holiday. Stanekzai told The Associated Press that the militants are believed to have fired the rockets from the house.
A helicopter gunship was called in and bombed the location, destroying the house and the vehicle.
Eyewitnesses at the scene said that after the explosions, sporadic shooting could be heard from the area, though it wasn't clear who was firing. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety.
Another police official, Mohammed Akram, said four attackers were apparently involved, though it was unclear if any survived the helicopter assault on the house. Police were combing the area in the heart of Kabul, where crowded open-air markets intrude on old residential areas of mostly poor, mud-brick homes.
Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish later said all the attackers were killed. Two members of the Afghan security forces were wounded in the firefight, which also ignited a fire in a nearby market, he said.
The assault on the major Muslim holiday came amid an unrelenting wave of attacks across the country in recent weeks and dealt another blow to Ghani's efforts to revive peace talks to end the 17-year war. On Sunday, Ghani had offered a conditional cease-fire to last during the holiday, saying it would only take effect if the Taliban reciprocated.
Both the Taliban and ISIS are fighting to overthrow the U.S.-backed government and impose a harsh form of Islamic rule, but they are fiercely divided on leadership, tactics and ideology, and routinely clash with one another.
