9 Killed in Missile Attack on Kabul; 2 Party Aides Fired

As Afghan rebels launched their fiercest missile attack on Kabul in two months, showering the capital with 60 rockets, President Najibullah’s ruling People’s Democratic Party dismissed two Politburo members Wednesday.

Official Kabul Radio said the party’s central committee, discussing the security of the capital, removed Saleh Mohammed Zerai and Abdolzohur Razmju from its Politburo and secretariat.

The radio gave no reason for the action but said that details of the proceedings of the committee plenum, chaired by Najibullah, will be published later.

The announcement came shortly after Tass, the official Soviet news agency, said 60 ground-to-ground rockets fired by Muslim rebels rained down on Kabul for six hours Wednesday.

One rocket hit Kabul airport, killing nine people and wounding 18. Among the dead were two Soviet women and a 2-year-old Soviet girl.

The victims were waiting in a tented enclosure for a Moscow-bound flight when a rocket struck the makeshift shelter, airport security officers said.

Sixteen Afghan nationals and a Soviet infant were wounded in the attack, they added.

The attack was the biggest since July, when 170 rockets fell on Kabul over a period of several days.

Two other people died in Kabul when a bomb went off in a city center kiosk, Tass said.

The rebels also killed three people in rocket attacks on the cities of Jalalabad and Gardez on Tuesday, Tass said.