World / 5 rockets fired at Kabul airport a day before US' evacuation deadline, intercepted

Kabul: As many as five rockets were fired at the Kabul airport but were intercepted by a missile defence system on Monday, a day after the US carried out an airstrike on Sunday night in the Afghan capital on an explosives-laden vehicle, an American official told Reuters. The US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the rockets were fired early Monday morning Kabul time, though it was unclear if all were brought down by the defence system. This came even as the United States nears the complete withdrawal of its troops from the city.

The official also told Reuters that initial reports did not indicate any US casualties but that information could change.

Earlier in the day, AFP journalists in Kabul said they could hear the sound of rockets flying across the city even as the United States raced to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan, with the evacuation of civilians all but over, amid fears of terror attacks. People living near the airport said they heard the sounds of the missile defence system being activated and smoke could be seen rising near the airport, AFP reported.

Officials have warned that ISIS-K was looking to target the airport with rockets. On Saturday, US President Joe Biden said the situation on the ground remained extremely dangerous, and that his military chiefs had told him another militant attack was highly likely within the next 24-36 hours.

"We know that they (ISIS-K) would like to lob a rocket in there, if they could. Now we actually have pretty good protection against that. We have our anti-rocket and mortar system,” General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told reporters in Washington last week.

The Islamic State group, rivals of the Taliban and the West, carried out a suicide bomb attack at the airport last week that claimed more than 100 lives, including 13 US troops.

On Sunday, the US said an Islamic State suicide car bomber suspected of preparing to attack the airport in the capital city was killed in the drone strike. Several Afghans, including children, were killed in the airstrike in Afghanistan's Kabul as the United States said it is probing them.

"We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul today," Captain Bill Urban, a US Central Command spokesperson, said in a statement. Urban said the US military was investigating whether civilians were killed, noting there were "powerful" explosions that resulted from the destruction of the vehicle. "We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life," he said.

Biden has set a deadline of Tuesday to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, drawing to a close America’s longest military conflict, which began in retaliation for the September 11 attacks.

The return of the hardline Islamist Taliban, which took over the country earlier this month, has triggered an exodus of terrified people aboard US-led evacuation flights. The flights, which have evacuated more than 114,000 people out of Kabul airport, will officially end on Tuesday when the last of the thousands of American troops pull out.