Kabul rocked by explosions

Opponents of the ruling Taliban movement bombed the vicinity of Kabul airport on Tuesday night, some 11 hours after terrorist attacks on the USA, setting an ammunition dump on fire and destroying two civilian planes at the airport, the German press agency (dpa) reported on Wednesday. However, the airport later appeared to be functional as plans progressed to evacuate UN and NGO workers from the Afghan capital in the wake of the US attacks. Although there had been no credible claim of responsibility as of Wednesday morning, some senior US officials were suggesting that the Saudi Arabian militant, Usama bin Ladin - who has been given sanctuary by the Taliban in Afghanistan - may have been involved.

Residents of Kabul were said to have been little disturbed by Tuesday night’s attack, since the impact of the bombing of the airport was at some remove (about 8 km) from most residential areas in the capital, dpa reported, citing the local, private Afghan Islamic Press (AIP). There has been some speculation that the attack on Kabul was in response to a suicide attack on Ahmad Shah Mas’ud, 48, leader of the opposition Northern Alliance, on 9 September. Members of his alliance inside and outside the country said he was wounded in the blast, but insisted he was recovering. Other reports suggest that he died in the blast. The Taliban drove Mas’ud and his supporters out of Kabul in 1996, and now control some 95 percent of the country.