Rocket strike jolts Kabul hotel

Kabul: A rocket hit outside the luxury Serena Hotel in Afghanistan's capital late yesterday, wounding two people, the Interior Ministry said.

The heavily guarded Serena regularly houses visiting diplomats, officials and international workers. It has been the target of attacks before, most recently in late October when a rocket slammed into a courtyard.

In yesterday's attack, the rocket hit low on the outside of a compound wall that rings the hotel, just behind a guardhouse, according to an Associated Press reporter who saw the impact spot. Rubble surrounded the area, but there was no large crater.

Dozens of police and army officers worked to secure the site as ambulance sirens wailed.

The rocket wounded two people, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said. He did not say how serious their injuries were.

Janagha Duragat, a shopkeeper, who was waiting outside the hotel to load his merchandise into a car, said he saw the rocket strike the wall. He said it appeared to have been fired from a nearby footbridge.

Duragat said he saw at least one policeman wounded in the attack.

In January 2008, militants wearing suicide vests stormed the hotel in a coordinated assault, killing seven people.

Meanwhile, yesterday top Afghan security chiefs unveiled a plan, drafted by Nato's top commanders n Afghanistan, to boost country's police and troop strength to 400,000, double the size of its previous goal.

Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said the government intended to increase the size of its army from the current target of 134,000 to 240,000 troops.

Police force

The Afghan army currently has around 93,000 soldiers on its payroll, eight years after training  mainly conducted by the US military began.

"It can be achieved and it will be achieved," Wardak told a ceremony at a military base in Kabul, where the US forces handed over the command of the training of Afghan forces to a newly-established command centre, dubbed Nato Training Mission.

Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar meanwhile told broadcaster Al Jazeera that the goal was for the Afghan police to increase in size from 82,000 to 160,000 personnel.

The information about the increased level of Afghan security forces was first reported when a confidential document drafted by Nato's top commander, US General Stanley McChrystal was leaked to the media, but until now not officially confirmed.

"Based on the latest assessment which is part of a proposal put forward by General McChrystal as part of his new strategy there will be altogether 160,000 police force and 240,000 army," Atmar told the TV channel.

"We pretty much agree, we think at the time being this is a very good figure based on our best assessment of the situation," he said.