Several rockets were fired at Kabul airport two days before the United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan

Several rockets were launched on Monday against Kabul airport, Witnesses and security sources said, less than 48 hours after the United States’ final withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In the morning, several people in Kabul, they heard the sound of rockets flying over the Afghan capital, but without being able to specify their origin or their objective.

The United States confirms an attack on Kabul airport and says operations have not been interrupted.

A senior security official who worked in the government overthrown two weeks ago by the Taliban said the rockets were fired from a vehicle in northern Kabul.

The projectiles were fired from a car in the Khair Khana neighborhood, north of Kabul, towards the airfield, according to News from Tolo.

Residents near the airport said they heard the sound of the missile defense system activated and saw shrapnel falling from the sky., which would indicate that at least one rocket was intercepted.

To the north of the city, where Hamid Karzai International Airport is located, smoke could be seen above the buildings.

For the time being, there were no more details about the event.

This comes in the home stretch of the evacuation of foreigners and Afghans in danger from Kabul airport, which is due to end on Tuesday, the deadline imposed by the White House to leave Afghanistan after twenty years of war.

These latest measures in the country have been threatened by the jihadist group Islamic State, which carried out a suicide bombing at the airport on Thursday, killing more than 100 people, including 13 American soldiers.

The american president Joe Biden warned of the high likelihood of further attacks. On Sunday, the Pentagon reported an airstrike on a car loaded with explosives heading for the terminal.

Until now, there are no reports of injuries or fatalities and a U.S. official informed the CNN that up to five rockets were repelled by the airport’s defense system.

The attack comes after a rocket hit a building in the Afghan capital on Sunday and the United States confirmed a drone attack on a vehicle in Kabul to neutralize an “imminent” threat over the airport.

The United States, which is continuing evacuation operations from Kabul until Tuesday, has already launched attacks against members of the ISKP, the branch of the jihadist group in Afghanistan, which claimed responsibility for an attack at the airport on Thursday. having killed 170 people.

The return to power of the Islamist movement of the Taliban, from which they were cut off in 2001, triggered an exodus of terrified Afghans who tried to flee thanks to a huge airlift led by the United States.

The flights, which have taken more than 114,000 people out of Kabul airport, will officially end on Tuesday. But many countries have already completed their missions and the United States is now making it a priority to save its troops and diplomats.

The Islamic State group, rival of the Taliban, poses a major threat in this home stretch as evidenced by the suicide bombing of the airport last Thursday which killed more than 100 people, including those of 13 American soldiers.

Biden warned of the high likelihood of further attacks and, in fact, the US military carried out an airstrike on a car loaded with explosives in Kabul on Sunday.

– Civilians killed? –

A Taliban spokesperson confirmed Sunday’s incident, noting that a car bomb targeting the airport had been destroyed. He also said a second suspected attack hit a nearby house.

Throughout the war, the United States has been accused of killing civilians in its airstrikes, one of the reasons it lost local support. The same could have happened on Sunday.

“We are aware of reports of civilian casualties after our attack on a vehicle in Kabul today.”Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for the US Military Central Command, said in a statement.

According to Urban, the explosions were “powerful” and the military is investigating whether there were any deaths among civilians. “We would be deeply saddened by any loss of innocent life,” he said.

In recent years, the IS branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan has carried out some of the worst attacks in those countries, slaughtering civilians in mosques, squares, schools and hospitals.

Although both are radical Sunnis, they maintain a deep enmity and both claim to be the true flagship of the jihad.

Thursday’s bombing, the deadliest blow to the United States in Afghanistan since 2011, prompted the Taliban and US forces to step up cooperation to protect the airport.

On Saturday, Taliban fighters escorted a steady stream of Afghans from the buses to the passenger terminal, handing them over to US troops for evacuation.

– Next return of the Taliban leader –

The radical Islamist movement, which had given refuge to the jihadist group Al-Qaeda, promises to propose a more moderate version of the fundamentalist regime that they imposed between 1996-2011.

Many Afghans, especially those who worked with foreign missions or the overthrown government, are suspicious of this new version of the Taliban and tried to flee during the evacuation operation deployed by the Western powers.

However, several countries have admitted to having completed their repatriation missions, leaving behind hundreds of civilians in danger.

On Sunday, the Taliban revealed that their supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, was in southern Afghanistan and planned to make a public appearance soon.

“It’s in Kandahar. He’s been there from the start, ”said movement spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.

“He will appear in public soon,” added deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi.

(With AFP and Europa Press information)

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