Explosions rock Kabul, U.S. denies strike

Explosions rock Kabul, U.S. denies strike

KABUL (Agencies): A series of explosions rocked Afghanistan's capital Kabul early Wednesday but U.S. officials swiftly denied they were retaliatory strikes for terror attacks in the United States.

An AFP reporter in the city heard seven or eight large blasts followed by what sounded like anti-aircraft fire and Taliban militia jets taking off from the main airport.

Flames could be seen over the low-rise skyline as multiple explosions and gunfire echoed around the war-ravaged city.

Helicopter gunships fired rockets into the Kabul airport early Wednesday, hours after the devastating terror attacks in the United States, according to Taliban soldiers and eyewitnesses.

Three Taliban aircraft were reportedly destroyed, including a passenger jet of the country's Ariana Airlines, eyewitnesses said on condition of anonymity.

Opposition soldiers facing off against the Taliban troops barely 50 kilometers north of the capital originally denied the attack, but later took responsibility.

"Our helicopters attacked the airport," said Waisuddin Salik, who was contacted by satellite telephone at the front line north of Kabul.

It was not clear why the opposition originally denied involvement in the attack, but it was believed it wanted to create uncertainty in the capital to fuel fears of a U.S. retaliatory strike for the horrific terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

Speaking from the front some 25 kilometers north of Kabul, an opposition commander, Besmillah, said the attack was designed to avenge an assassination attempt against opposition military chief Ahmad Shah Masood.

Taliban sources initially feared the blasts were U.S. missile strikes in retaliation for the militia's support for Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, America's most wanted terrorist.

The radical Islamic militia has denied that Osama, who lives in Afghanistan as its "guest", had been involved in the devastating terror attacks in New York and Washington on Tuesday.

But U.S. officials said the explosions were not a retaliatory strike similar to missile attacks on Osama's alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan in 1998 following bombings at two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

"We have no knowledge of who is responsible for the attacks in Afghanistan, but the United States is not," said Scott McClellan, spokesman for U.S. President George W. Bush.

The Taliban, or movement of "Islamic students", seized Kabul in 1996 and ousted then-defense minister Masood and president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Residents around the airport said they could recognize the explosions as rockets commonly used in the Afghan conflict.

Fighting broke out Tuesday morning some 25 kilometers north of Kabul as the Taliban tried to take advantage of the absence of Masood, whose whereabouts since the assassination bid are unknown.

The United Nations envoy for Afghanistan said on Wednesday he had ordered a temporary pullout of UN staff from the country because of fears of U.S. retaliatory strikes in response to the attacks in America.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday it was withdrawing some of its foreign staff from Afghanistan because of security fears after Tuesday's terror attacks in the United States.

"Some of our staff, we are sending to Peshawar. All our management is here, so a big majority of our expatriate staff is in Afghanistan," ICRC spokesman Mario Musa told Reuters.

He said only about 16 of the 76 international staff would leave.

The United States has not accused any group of hijacking commercial planes on Tuesday to carry out Tuesday's deadly attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington -- believed to have killed thousands.

But U.S. officials have said their suspicions focus on bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization.