Скачать или смотреть Rocket attacks in Kabul on eve of election

(8 Oct 2004) SHOTLIST

Night shots
1. Various of army vehicles sealing off road
2. Various of army vehicles in street
3. Various of security
4. Military vehicle in street

STORYLINE

Two rockets were fired near the US Embassy and other diplomatic missions in Kabul early on Friday, a day before landmark elections in Afghanistan.

One of the rockets hit a car park near a media accreditation centre for the elections, but did not explode, a spokesman for international peacekeepers said.

He said a boom that shook the city was believed to have been caused by a second rocket landing in the same part of the city, but it was not clear where it hit.

The headquarters for the 9,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is also close to the US Embassy, as are the German and Pakistani missions.

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties or damage.

Heavily armed US and Afghan troops sealed off the roads leading to the diplomatic area.

A US official said that as a precaution, all staff at the US embassy had been ordered to take cover in an underground bunker.

A senior US official in Washington said embassy staff were allowed out of the bunkers a short time later.

The blast shattered a relatively calm lead-up to Saturday's vote, at least in the capital.

It was the first attack in Kabul since 28 August, when a huge car bomb outside a private US security firm killed 10 people.

Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime's fighters and al-Qaida militants have kept up a steady stream of attacks throughout Afghanistan since
campaigning for the election began on 7 September.

Since the start of the campaign, it's estimated that more than sixty people have been killed, mostly in Afghanistan's provinces.

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