Kabul hit by rockets amid Eid celebrations
Kabul, Jul 20 (EFE).- The Afghan capital was hit by at least three rockets on Tuesday while people were offering prayers on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha, also known as “festival of the sacrifice,” in an attack that the authorities have attributed to the Taliban.
“Enemies of Afghanistan and terrorists carried out rocket attacks on Kabul city, based on initial information the three rockets landed in three separate areas and we have no casualties so far,” Interior Ministry Spokesperson Mirwais Stanekzai said in a statement.
The rockets were fired at around 8 am from the Parwan-e-Se area in northern Kabul towards the center of the city, where the presidential palace and other government buildings are located.
The rockets landed close to the Afghan presidential palace next to a business center, behind a mosque and near a public park.
At the time of the attack, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, other government officials and the country’s top politicians were offering Eid prayers in a ceremony that was broadcast live on national television.
“Eid always brings happiness, but you saw they fired rockets on us, but no one moved during prayers, you cannot capture this country by rockets,” Ghani said in a speech after prayers.
He added that the government has drawn up a plan to bring about changes in the war-like situation and to prevent rapid territorial advances by the Taliban during which they have captured around 130 district centers in the two and a-half months after the foreign forces started pulling out of the country.
The government has worked for a week on an “emergency and practical plan that could change the situation of war” which is now ready, he added.
There has been an an unprecedented escalation in violence in Afghanistan after the United States and NATO forces began withdrawing from the country on May 1.
Although the Afghan government and the Taliban have resumed efforts to accelerate the stalled intra-Afghan peace talks, they have so far failed to make any significant progress. EFE
