5 rockets hit Afghan capital, 1 near US Embassy

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – At least five rockets slammed into Kabul at daybreak Tuesday, one of them falling near the U.S. Embassy in a rare attack on the Afghan capital fewer than three weeks before presidential elections, police and residents said.

The explosions, heard by AP reporters, occurred to the east of the city, toward the international airport and near several residential areas.

The impact of one of the rockets could be seen about 200 yards (meters) from the U.S. Embassy on a main road in central Kabul. It hit the house of a senior Interior Ministry official but caused no casualties, security officers said.

At the scene, Maj. Ghulam Rasul of the Afghan national army said he believed the rockets were of the long-range BM1 type, which can be fired from portable rocket launchers positioned on the ground several miles from their target. "The capital is closely guarded. They had to fire from far away," Rasul said.

Col. Fatih Uddin, the security chief at the damaged Interior Ministry house, estimated the building probably wasn't the main target of the attack. "Of course, it seems that the target was more the American Embassy," Uddin said.

The U.S. Embassy strongly questioned whether this was the case.

"There's no indication these rockets were targeting any particular site in Kabul," embassy spokeswoman Fleur Cowan said. She said the embassy had not implemented any special security measures Tuesday beyond its usual response in cases of indirect fire.

Kabul's deputy police chief, Mohammad Khalil Dastyar, said it was too early to ascertain what the attackers were aiming for.

Dastyar said seven rockets _rather than the five most people heard_ had been fired from the northeast of Kabul a few minutes before 5 a.m.

He blamed Taliban fighters for the attack. "They're just trying to sabotage and create tension in Kabul," Dastyar said. Police have found that only one child was injured by the rockets, he said. No damage was caused to any parts of the international airport.

Standing next to a damaged house near the U.S. Embassy, witness Abdul Wali Zai said it was lucky that the attack took place in the early morning when streets were still largely empty. Since there were no injuries, he said the rockets wouldn't affect Kabul residents who have experienced three decades of fighting.

"Our morale is very high because it is close to the election," Wali Zai told Associated Press Television News.

A few rounds of sporadic gunfire came shortly after the rockets. A police officer in eastern Kabul said that it was not clear why the shots had been fired but that security forces were all on alert. The police officer requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

"It was very loud, just as we were praying," said Kabul resident Ismail Khan, who said he was conducting Islam's dawn prayer when the rockets went off in close succession nearby.

Though bombings, suicide attacks and gunbattles frequently take place across much of Afghanistan, Kabul has been relatively spared from the violence.

The attack Tuesday came as Afghans braced for key presidential and local councilor elections later this month. The Taliban have vowed to disrupt the Aug. 20 vote, and 11 people were killed in a bombing Monday in Herat, western Afghanistan's largest city.

Some 101,000 NATO and U.S. forces are deployed to secure the country. This includes a record 62,000 U.S. troops, more than double the number a year ago.

Nine NATO troops have been killed in fighting or bombings this month, including three Americans on Sunday and three on Saturday, along with two Canadians and one French.

July was the deadliest month for international troops since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban's hard-line Islamist government for sheltering al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.