Rocket Attack on Kabul Airport in Failed Assassination Bid

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An airplane lands a Kabul International Airport. The surrounding mountians are visible in the background.

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KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - Attackers launched an assassination
attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s airplane today as he departed the Kabul International
Airport.

Multiple rockets, aimed at the President’s airplane, struck
the airport ground and surround area, causing loud explosions and shaking container-based
buildings and village housing up to a mile away. Despite the scale of the
attack, none of the rockets were successful in hitting President Karzai’s
airplane, and he continued on his trip to the Kyrgyz capitol of Bishkek,
arriving this afternoon. 

This is not the first attack on the Kabul airport; a rocket missed a passenger plane
almost a year ago, and further rockets were fired over the airport into
residential areas in February.  

Although the city-facing side of the Kabul airport occupied and protected by ISAF
is well-defended, the other side is mountainous and very poorly guarded. This creates
a viable vantage point overlooking the airport and the city itself from which
attackers can fire rockets and mortars at either target.  The relatively low success rate of attacks is
more a reflection of the inaccuracy of the weapons used than security efforts
on the Afghan side of the airport.  

Elsewhere in the city a shootout between government forces
and unknown fighters broke out downtown, resulting in the non-fatal shooting of
at least one passer-by and unknown casualties on either side.  Earlier in the day a roadside bomb killed
three Germans, one diplomat and two security personnel, traveling in a convoy,
throwing their armored four wheel drive into the air and onto its side.