Rockets Hit Kabul District Near American Embassy

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying that it was to show that the government cannot ensure security in the capital ahead of national elections on Aug. 20, The Associated Press reported, quoting Zabiullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman.

Rocket attacks are rare in the capital but have reached the residential area around the NATO headquarters and western embassy compounds in the past. Triggered by timing devices, the rockets are often fired over a long distance from the hills surrounding the city and tend to be inaccurate. But they occasionally kill or wound residents.

One rocket Tuesday morning landed outside an apartment block, smashing windows and wounding three people in apartments on the second floor, witnesses said. A second landed in the street near a hospital and others further towards the eastern side of the city.

“It was very loud, an astonishing sound, I thought at the time that our house had collapsed,” said a 17-year-old high school student who identified herself only as Elaha. She said she was wounded in the arm and chest from a rocket that landed outside her apartment building.