Gathering Marred by Incidents

On Tuesday two rockets struck outlying districts of the Afghan capital in the middle of the night but did not cause any casualties. One landed in Khwaja Bughra and another in Shir Pour.

Police said both struck not long after midnight. Kabul city police chief Baba Jan said a mine defusion explosion near the airport had been mistaken for a third rocket attack.

Kabul police said they defused a mine in the middle of the city on Wednesday evening, near a Chinese restaurant frequented by foreigners. They said they had not been able to make arrests.

Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said at a news conference that security force sweeps in the hills and plains around the capital had led to the discovery and defusion of 67 BM 12 and Scud missiles since the start of the Loya Jirga. He said police were trying to catch those responsible.

Jalali also said night letters - a traditional form of protest in Afghanistan where posters are distributed under cover of darkness - had been distributed calling for a Jihad or Holy War against President Hamed Karzai’s transitional administration and American troops stationed in the country.

Many hundreds of Afghan National Army, national police and international forces have been deployed in the immediate area of the Loya Jirga and police in and around Kabul have set up checkpoints to ring the city.

The Taleban has issued threats of an attack. Rocket attacks have occasionally hit parts of Kabul over the past year.

An improvised bomb went off Saturday east of the presidential palace, and a similar explosive went off two weeks ago just along the perimeter of the Intercontinental Hotel, shattering windows of the houses nearby. No deaths or major injuries were reported from the explosions.

Bashir Ahmad Gwakh is participating in IWPR’s Loya Jirga reporting project.