UNICEF and other agencies continue despite rocket attack

The work of the Office of United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in the eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad has resumed, a day after two rockets hit the compound early Tuesday morning, agency officials said.

UNICEF spokesman Edward Carwardine told IRIN that it was business as usual in the Jalalabad office - located in the eastern sector of the city. The rockets injured one guard, damaged parked vehicles and shattered windows.

"We have no reason to believe that the attack was aimed at UNICEF. Investigations on the ground are going on at this time," Carwardine said from the Afghan capital, Kabul. "However, it has shaken up the staff." Military installations and the airport are also located in the east of the city.

Another UNICEF spokesman Chulho Hyun, who visited the damaged compound, described the damage to vehicles and windows as extensive. "The first rocket hit at about 4:30 in the morning," Hyun said. "Soon after that, about 10 seconds later, the second one hit, creating a big crater near the guard post."

It was flying shrapnel from the second rocket that fell inside the compound, which injured the guard on duty though not seriously. The first one had hit the wall of the compound.

"It was very fortunate that this happened in the wee hours. If it would have happened during the working hours, many people could have been injured by the shrapnel and flying glass," Hyun noted, explaining that the incident underscored that the security situation in the country was very fluid.

"Normal work has now resumed after a momentary break-up yesterday," he added. UNICEF's Jalabad office is one five major offices in Afghanistan. The agency is involved in health, education, child protection, water and sanitation projects in and around the city.

A UN source told IRIN that the incident had not affected the work of the other UN agencies operating in Jalalabad, or eastern Afghanistan, a volatile area.

However, humanitarian workers, both local and international, have expressed increasing concern over security in Kabul and the rest of country after a wave of violent attacks and renewed fighting in the east, which left dozens of people dead.

Last week at United Nations headquarters in New York Afghan President Hamid Karzai again appealed to the international community to extend the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) beyond the capital, but his call remains unheeded.