Afghanistan: Explosion At US Embassy In Kabul On 9/11 Anniversary
By RFE RL
(RFE/RL) — A rocket exploded at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in the early hours of September 11.
No injuries were reported an hour after the blast, according to the AP.
Inside the embassy, employees heard the following message over the loudspeaker: “An explosion caused by a rocket has occurred on compound.”
There was no official comment from U.S. or Afghan officials.
The blast comes on the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States that ushered in the war in Afghanistan, and just after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that peace talks with the Taliban were “dead.”
Trump gave the assessment of peace negotiations, which had been going on between U.S. and Taliban officials for months, on September 9.
Days earlier he cancelled secret talks with Afghan and Taliban officials in the United States in the wake of a car bombing carried out by the militant group in Kabul that killed 12 people, including a U.S. soldier.
Trump said he felt that the Taliban had carried out the violence to put them in a better bargaining position in the negotiations.
During a visit to Afghanistan on September 9, U.S. Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, indicated to reporters that the United States was likely to increase operations against the Taliban.
About 14,000 U.S. soldiers remain in the country and Trump has called their ongoing deployment “ridiculous,” including the many billions of dollars spent in the war.
The UN envoy for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, said on September 10 that it is “imperative” for peace talks to start “as soon as possible” between the Afghan government and Taliban.
Meanwhile, relatives of 9/11 victims are expected at ground zero on September 11, while Trump is scheduled to join a commemoration at the Pentagon.
The anniversary ceremonies remember the nearly 3,000 people who were killed when hijacked planes struck the trade center’s twin towers in New York, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.
In addition to being a day of remembrance and patriotism, September 11 is also a day of volunteering.
