Taliban 'behind Kabul rocket attack'

The rockets struck as delegates are meeting in Kabul to decide on the country's future

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan officials have blamed a rocket attack in the capital on remnants of the ousted Taliban movement, but said it would not disrupt the loya jirga grand assembly in its efforts to form a government.

General Deen Mohammad Jurat, chief of security affairs in the interior ministry, blamed the Tuesday attack on followers of the hardline Taliban movement, driven from power last year.

"We have arrested some people as suspects, but we believe the attack was carried out by Taliban sympathisers," Jurat told Reuters on Wednesday.

Two rockets were launched at a Soviet-era housing complex in eastern Kabul late Tuesday, with one striking the building but causing no damage.

There were no reports of casualties, which occurred about 2 kilometers from the U.S. embassy in the Afghanistan capital.

The second rocket appeared to miss the Microrayan housing complex, striking trees on the street outside the building, officials said Monday.

French peacekeepers from the International Security Assistance Force were investigating the incident along with Kabul police.

An ISAF spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Helen Wildman, said the "obvious suspects" would be al Qaeda or Taliban holdouts.

"We have been expecting that such events might happen, and therefore we have a range of responses to these attacks, and that's what we've put in place today," Wildman said.

However, she added, "We have no firm evidence that it was linked to the loya jirga."

A loya jirga, or grand council, has been meeting in Kabul to form a new Afghan government.

She said one of the rockets hit the apartment building but caused no damage.

"There's no damage there, which might suggest it didn't explode," she said.

Authorities at the scene said the rocket struck shops on the lower level of the building.

Wildman said personnel manning an observation post at the airport reported seeing two rockets fired around 9:35 p.m. (0505 GMT), and the French troops were immediately deployed to the area.