Rockets have landed near the Afghan’s Presidential Palace located in Kabul during prayer for the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival, said officials and media reports.
According to the Reuters news agency, there were no direct reports of injury, citing local media reports on Tuesday. Not very immediately the apparent who was behind the attack.
President Ashraf Ghani continued with prayers despite some loud explosions in the area, TV images showed. Rockets, fired around 8 am (3:30 GMT), were heard in a fortified green zone that accommodated the palace and several embassies, including the US mission.
Ghani then delivered a speech from the outdoor podium, broadcast on local media. At least three rockets landed in the capital of Afghanistan when the city marked the beginning of a Muslim holiday, said Ministry of Home Affairs spokesman Mirwais Stanekzai.
“Today Afghan enemies launch rocket attacks in various parts of Kabul,” Stanekzai said. “All rockets hit three different parts. Based on our initial information, we did not have the victim. Our team is investigating in the matter.”
Rockets have also been aimed at the Presidential Palace many times before in the past, in the last in December. The attack coincided with the attacks of the Taliban, which swept throughout the country. When foreign forces ended. With the withdrawal of troops scheduled to be completed on August 31.
Unlike the previous few years, the Taliban did not declare a ceasefire during the Idul Fitri vacation this year. However, there was an urgent call from the Afghan civil society and the international community to end the battle.
On Monday, 15 diplomatic missions and NATO representatives in Kabul urged the Taliban to stop the attack, just hours after the Afghan group and the Afghan government failed to approve a ceasefire in their talks in Doha.
“Taliban offensia is in direct contradictions with their claims to support negotiated settlement,” read the statement. “It has resulted in the loss of innocent Afghan lovers, including through sustainable targeted murders, the displacement of civilians, looting and building buildings, vital infrastructure destruction, and damage to communication networks.”
For months, both parties had met and went in Qatarmal Qatar but had reached a little, with talks seem to have lost momentum when the Taliban made a sweeping increase.
On Sunday, a joint statement said they have agreed to the need to achieve “only solutions” and meet again next week. “We also need to agree that there should be no pause in negotiations,” Abdullah Abdullah, who oversees the Delegation of the Afghan government, said on Monday.
After the weekend’s summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that his government hoped to start talks with the Taliban for the group’s rejection to let Ankara run Kabul airport after US forces withdrew from Afghanistan.
Turkey has negotiated with US defence officials on the offer to secure the airport, which is the key to allowing the state to maintain a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of troops.
Last week, the Taliban called Turkey’s offer “despicable”.
The battle, meanwhile, continued in Afghanistan, with the Taliban and the government claimed. To increase in various parts of the country. During the weekend, the Taliban’s highest leader Hibatullah Akhundzada said he was “very helpful” in a political settlement – even when the group continued his attack. The Taliban has arrested the district, won the border crossing and circling the provincial capital when foreign troops prepared to exit at the end of August fully.
In Washington, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that around 700 translators and family members near those who escaped Afghanistan would be transferred to a military base in Virginia.