Rockets were fired on Tuesday toward the presidential palace in Kabul as the Afghan president was delivering his holiday message for the Muslim celebrations of Eid al-Adha, police said, prompting a ferocious aerial response, with helicopter gunships bombing the house from where the rockets were reportedly launched.
Police initially blamed the Taliban, but an Islamic State affiliate later issued a brief statement saying it had
fired mortar shells at the presidential palace. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.
The first rocket landed somewhere near the presidency building, while the second hit near a NATO compound and the U.S. Embassy, but no one was hurt, said police official Jan Agha.
The boom of the rockets was heard in the live broadcast of President Ashraf Ghani’s speech. Ghani interrupted his message to said, “If they are thinking the rocket attack will keep Afghans down, they are wrong.”
The area where the rockets hit is one of the most secure in the Afghan capital, where embassies and government buildings are surrounded by high cement blast walls and coils of razor wire. Many streets near the US Embassy are closed off, as well as those near sensitive Government and military installations.