Kabul: Taliban militants fired eight rockets into a Nato airbase at one of Afghanistan’s main airports on Saturday evening, provincial authorities said.
While there were no casualties or damage to buildings at the base at Jalalabad airport, the attack comes just two weeks after militants attacked Pakistan’s Karachi airport, killing dozens.
Haji Mohammad Sediq, the district governor of Behsud in eastern Nangarhar province said one or two of the missiles landed near the US-run military airfield.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying it had executed eight heavy explosions inside the airfield.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed the attack on Pakistan’s busiest airport. The groups share a similar jihadist ideology but operate as separate entities.
Afghanistan’s Taliban have sustained a high level of violence even as most foreign troops are due to pull out of the country this year, leaving Afghan security forces to face the insurgents on their own.
In a separate attack on Saturday in Nangarhar province, at least four people including a police official were killed when a bomb exploded near a police checkpoint in Jalalabad city.
“Its target was a police check post in that area but most of its victims are innocent civilians,” Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the Nangarhar governor said.
UN mission strongly condemns attack on head of Afghan peace council
K The United Nations mission in Afghanistan has strongly condemned targeted attack on Masoom Stanekzai, a government minister and the Head of the Secretariat of the country’s High Peace Council.
A suicide bomber reportedly detonated his explosives near Mr Stankezai’s passing motorcade in the capital, Kabul, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama). The minister was not injured but the attack killed one civilian and injured several others.
“All attacks on civilians should be condemned, Jan Kubis, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of Unama, said in a statement.
“This attack is particularly worthy of condemnation as it targeted someone who has been working incessantly and tirelessly for peace and reconciliation in the country for many years, particularly through his work as head of the High Peace Council Secretariat,” he stated, adding that those responsible should be brought to justice quickly.
