Aid Crew Balks at Kabul Flight; Rocket Kills 7

Seven people died in a rocket attack on central Kabul on Wednesday as Muslim rebels intensified their campaign to hamper the Soviet Union’s hurried troop withdrawal from beleaguered Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, U.N. officials found a replacement for an EgyptAir plane whose crew refused to fly the first U.N. relief supplies to the embattled Afghan capital.

At the last minute, the EgyptAir crew refused to fly to the city, which is preparing for the possibility of a long siege after Soviet troops complete their pullout next week.

U.N. officials said an Ethiopian Airlines cargo plane arrived in Islamabad and was loading the 32 tons of supplies the Egyptian plane should have flown to Kabul on Tuesday to start a U.N. airlift of 390 tons of food and medicines.

The refusal brought an angry response from Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, who is coordinating U.N. relief efforts for Afghanistan.

Flying into Kabul can be hair-raising because planes descend quickly and bank sharply while Soviet planes circle, spewing out magnesium flares as decoys for possible rebel missiles.

The rocket attack on Kabul was the first major barrage after a period of calm in the capital. The fatalities were caused when a rocket exploded among a crowd collecting flour and cooking oil from a distribution center.

The Soviet news agency Tass also reported that Muslim rebels attacked posts along two roads out of Afghanistan. The roads are the main land departure routes for an estimated 15,000 Soviet troops, the last of a force of more than 100,000 due to leave by Feb. 15 under U.N.-mediated accords.