Rocket attack hits Kabul on Afghanistan Independence Day

RAHMAT GUL/AP
Smoke rises after rockets hit the Afghan capital of Kabul during Independence Day celebrations at the Defense Ministry on August 18, 2020.

At least 10 civilians, including four children, were injured in the Afghan capital of Kabul in an attack with 14 rockets against the city’s heavily-fortified Green Zone as the country marked its 101st independence anniversary.

The rockets were launched from two vehicles in the northern and eastern parts of the capital on Tuesday, Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said, Press TV wrote.

“Most of the mortar shells hit residential houses in Kabul,” Arian said. “Unfortunately, 10 civilians, including four children and one woman, have been wounded.”

He said two suspects had been detained and investigations into the incident remained ongoing.

Witnesses, meanwhile, said that some of the rockets struck near the presidential palace and the Defense Ministry after the country’s President Ashraf Ghani took part in an Independence Day event at the palace.

Other eyewitnesses cited by press agencies further said at least one mortar shell had landed in the affluent Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, where numerous diplomats and senior government officials reside.

Although no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, it took place a day after the government declared its refusal to release the last 320 Taliban prisoners that it holds until the militants – who have signed a “peace” deal with the US – free more captive Afghan soldiers.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid expressed unawareness about the mortar attack in Kabul.

The Daesh terrorist group has interrupted national celebrations in Afghanistan in the past with rocket fire.