Extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for multiple rockets fired at Kabul's airport early Monday morning as the United States rushed to complete its pullout from Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting, Western media outlets reported.
The group earlier took credit for last Thursday's suicide bombing outside the same airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghans desperate to leave on evacuation flights ahead of the Tuesday deadline to withdraw U.S. forces from the country, now under Taliban control.
"By the grace of God Almighty, the soldiers of the Caliphate targeted Kabul International Airport with six Katyusha rockets," the group's Nasher News said on its Telegram channel, Reuters reported from Cairo on Monday.
There were no immediate reports of any casualties from the rockets, some of which were reportedly intercepted by U.S. anti-missile defenses.
The Associated Press reported that in the capital's Chahr-e-Shaheed neighborhood, the remains of a four-door sedan used by the attackers was found with what appeared to be six homemade rocket tubes mounted in place of back seats.
Citing witnesses, AP said some of the rockets landed across town in the Salim Karwan neighborhood, some 3 kilometers from the airport, striking residential apartment blocks.
CNN reported that the U.S. military's C-RAM defense system -- designed to protect ground forces against rockets, artillery and mortars -- targeted the rockets in a hail of machinegun fire.
The rockets were launched after the U.S. military conducted a drone strike in Kabul on Sunday, destroying a vehicle believed to have been loaded with explosives.
The U.S. Central Command said Sunday's attack eliminated "an imminent ISIS-K threat" to the airport, referring to an Islamic State affiliate group known as Islamic State-Khorasan that is known to have major differences with the Taliban.
It also said the attack, the second by the U.S. military on the group in recent days, caused "significant secondary explosions from the vehicle," indicating the presence of "a substantial amount of explosive material."
CNN reported that nine members of a family, including six children, were killed in the strike, citing a relative.
"We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life," the Central Command said regarding reports of civilian casualties.
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