Taliban militants fired at least nine rockets at the Afghan capital before dawn yesterday in the biggest attack of its kind for several years, some landing near major Western embassies, police and witnesses said.
Amid a serious escalation of violence before Aug. 20 presidential elections, a provincial governor escaped unhurt after roadside bombs hit his convoy just west of the capital in an apparent assassination attempt, a spokesman said.
The Taliban have vowed to disrupt the elections and have called on Afghans to boycott the ballot, the second direct presidential poll since the Islamists were toppled by US-backed Afghan forces in 2001. Violence across Afghanistan this year had already reached its worst level since 2001 and escalated further after thousands of US Marines launched a major offensive in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand last month.
Senior police officer Sayed Ghafar said two rockets landed in the Wazir Akbar Khan diplomatic area, home to both the US and British embassies as well as the headquarters of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. At least one rocket landed near a hospital close to the US embassy, TV pictures showed.
Residents said yesterday’s rocket attack was the biggest for several years.
It was also the first serious attack in Kabul in in this year’s upswing of violence, which has gradually spread out of Taliban strongholds in the south and east.
Meanwhile, NATO’s new civilian and military leaders are briefing members of the alliance’s decision-making North Atlantic Council on recent command changes in Afghanistan and other matters affecting the war.
The NATO secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and supreme allied commander US Admiral James Stavridis were meeting yesterday with envoys from the alliance’s 28 member states.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
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