Us embassy in kabul attacked on christmas day

Ahmad Nazar/AP Photo

100s of yankee diplomats and aid employees in Kabul awoke Christmas morning towards the seem of explosions, because the American embassy received attack soon after beginning.

The explosions sent staff in the embassy - who live on a single compound throughout their off-hrs - scurrying to explosive device animal shelters for canopy.

The embassy sustained two hits from indirect fire, based on an american embassy statement presented to ABC. It's unclear when the "indirect fire" was mortars or rockets. The embassy is closed on Xmas day, with no People in america were hurt. Embassy authorities are actually looking into the incident.

Rocket attacks aren't uncommon in Kabul, but direct hits around the US embassy are rare. It's unclear wherever inside the sprawling, heavily prepared compound the projectiles arrived. Two rockets arrived elsewhere within the city around the same time frame, based on Afghan police.

The Taliban rapidly stated responsibility, saying they'd specific the embassy but made no reference to the Christmas holiday.

Unlike exactly what the military calls "complex attacks," which usually involve days of planning and finish with armed insurgents storming in the building, rocket attacks like present day take time and effort to avoid. Kabul is encircled by mountain tops and hillsides, with several unoccupied, high-rise structures presently being built, offering militants convenient vantage suggests launch attacks clear.

Despite how easy it's to produce rockets and mortars, their focusing on is not even close to precise. Militants routinely launch mortars at coalition bases along with other greater profile targets, but couple of ever hit their market, frequently landing outdoors the bases or perhaps in areas which are unpopulated. Inside a complex attack this summer time, seven Taliban martial artists occupied an empty building being built roughly two miles from the US military base close to the Kabul airport terminal. Regardless of the close closeness towards the base, there have been no casualties and all sorts of militants handled to complete was launch just one rocket that tore an opening with an plane hangar. In '09, the Taliban released a number of rocket attacks on Kabul throughout the nation's elections. They stated their target was the Presidential structure, but many arrived outdoors the structure compound.