Rockets Greet Key Afghan Meeting
An overnight rocket attack on the capital increased the sense of urgency at Afghanistan's landmark constitutional convention Tuesday, where a dispute over their role in government has roiled women delegates.
Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers backed up by F-16s and Apache attack helicopters killed at least two suspected Taliban rebels and captured three others during an intense firefight in eastern Afghanistan, the military said.
Elsewhere, a bomb exploded near a television station in the eastern city of Jalalabad, shattering windows but causing no injuries, an Afghan official said.
In Kabul, three rockets came down in the early morning hours near the airport about 6 miles away from where the loya jirga, or grand council, is drawing up the country's first post-Taliban charter.
Some delegates slept right through the drama. Others said they noticed even greater security as they entered the closely guarded site Tuesday, as three helicopters patrolled the sky overhead.
The rockets were fired into the north of the Afghan capital at about 12:50 a.m. local time Tuesday. They came down in a residential area northeast of the council site. There were no reports of injuries.
The target of the rockets was not clear, but the U.S. military has warned that Taliban insurgents might try to strike the council. Leaflets denouncing the gathering have appeared in several towns.
Thousands of Afghan troops, as well as the 5,500-strong international peacekeeping force, have been providing security for the loya jirga, setting up machine-gun posts and checking cars. Afghan intelligence units are patrolling hills surrounding the city to try to prevent rocket attacks.
A spokesman said determined assailants could always get through.
"The rockets have a good range, some up to 15-20 kilometers (9-12 miles)," Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said at the U.S. military headquarters at Bagram, north of Kabul. "So it's very hard to stop all violence. It's almost impossible."
The 500 delegates are to ratify a constitution supposed to form the bedrock of a new state strong enough to put an end to 24 years of fighting that has left much of the country impoverished and in ruins.
Delegates said the blasts only made them more determined.
"People want to see the government in control," said Ahmad Wali Karzai, a younger brother of President Hamid Karzai. "Whoever is behind the attacks is the loser, the people are sick and tired of this."
The loya jirga is also set to tackle key issues such as how firmly to anchor the tenets of Islam in the country's constitution as well the rights of its women.
According to the New York Times, women at the conference were miffed when the chairman opted not to name a woman as one of his deputies. He reversed the ruling later, but women were still riled by his remark that they should not make the mistake of considering themselves equal to men.
U.S. soldiers came under attack from 11 to 15 suspected Taliban Monday morning near a coalition base at Shkin, 135 miles south of the capital, Kabul, along the border with Pakistan, Hilferty said.
"We engaged them in direct fire, then called in the F-16s," said Hilferty. He said the warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs, and that AH-64 Apache helicopters were also called in.
The firefight lasted about an hour, he said. There were no coalition casualties.
Taliban rebels have stepped up their insurgency in recent months, launching ever-more-frequent attacks in the south and east of the country. U.S. and Afghan officials say the rebels slip back across the porous border into Pakistan's tribal belt to evade arrest.
The American military on Dec. 2 launched Operation Avalanche, which it said involves 2,000 troops and is the largest military maneuver since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. No major combat has been reported, however, and the mission has been overshadowed by the deaths of 15 Afghan children in two raids earlier this month.