NATO-led peacekeepers were on heightened alert yesterday as they investigated an rocket attack on their main base in the Afghan capital, the second such attack this year.
The rocket exploded at 9:50pm Thursday in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base, known as Camp Warehouse, housing hundreds of troops in east Kabul, causing some damage but no casualties.
An hour later a blast shook another ISAF base used by the Canadian troop contingent in southwest Kabul. The cause was still being investigated.
ISAF patrols have been dis-patched to investigate both blasts and "soldiers were put on a heightened state of alert," ISAF announced in a statement.
Rebels believed to be resurgent Taliban and their allies have stepped attacks in the past six weeks, targeting aid workers, Afghan and Western troops and officials.
The worst strike against ISAF since its deployment 21 months ago occurred near Camp Warehouse on June 7, when a suicide car bomb attack killed four German peacekeepers. Al-Qaeda was blamed for the attack.
Initial investigations into Thursday night's attack indicated a "small calibre rocket" struck and damaged a shipping container in the Camp Warehouse. Bomb disposal experts were examining the site, ISAF said.
The rocket appeared to have been fired from the nearby Ko-i-Safi mountain, Afghan police at the scene said late Thursday.
The attack fell on the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror strikes, claimed by al-Qaeda which at the time was based in Afghanistan.
The US had warned its citizens in Kabul of possible attacks to coincide with the anniversary and had instructed them to avoid public places. US diplomats were told not to undertake unofficial travel within the city.
Six months ago two rockets were fired at ISAF headquarters. The two 122mm rockets destroyed two vehicles and damaged a building but there were no casualties.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not