Rockets strike downtown Kabul, no casualties reported

KABUL: As many as two rockets landed near the international military headquarters in downtown Kabul early on Saturday morning, Afghan security officials said.

There were no reports of casualties.

At around 6 a.m. (01:30 am GMT) alarms could be heard sounding at the headquarters of the NATO-led military mission, as well as at several foreign embassies in the area.

The alarms were followed by several loud explosions.

A day earlier, suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Afghanistan, killing at least 72 people including children, officials and witnesses said.

One bomber walked into a mosque in the capital Kabul as people were praying on Friday night and detonated an explosive, one of the worshippers there, Mahmood Shah Husaini, said.

At least 39 people died in the blast at the Imam Zaman mosque in the city’s western Dasht-e-Barchi district, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.

No group claimed responsibility.

Separately, a suicide bombing killed at least 33 people at a mosque in central Ghor province, a police spokesman said.

The attack appeared to target a local leader from the Jamiat political party, according to a statement from Balkh provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor, a leading figure in Jamiat.

Again, no one immediately claimed responsibility.