Rockets Rain on Kabul, a Day After Celebration

Rebel rockets rained on the Afghan capital throughout the day Thursday, killing 16 people, injuring 46 and spoiling President Najibullah’s celebration of the 11th anniversary of the Marxist coup that brought his party to power.

The attack by the U.S.-supported Islamic rebels known as the moujahedeen apparently was timed to coincide with the anniversary. It appeared to be intended as a show of force even as the rebels are losing ground to the government, which has managed to stay in power even after the last of 115,000 Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan in February.

Fearing such an anniversary attack, Najibullah had staged his own show of force a day earlier, with a military parade that included the army’s latest Soviet weapons. Officials said the event was moved up 24 hours in order to avoid putting visiting dignitaries in jeopardy, along with the hundreds of soldiers who took part in the parade.

One of the rockets that hit Kabul on Thursday exploded just 100 yards from the reviewing stand where Najibullah had stood the day before. It came in at 7:15 a.m., the hour at which the parade had originally been scheduled to get under way Thursday.

Two civilians sitting on the river bank nearby were killed, and the government took a group of visiting foreign reporters to the site to show them the victims’ bodies.

Foreign Ministry officials also took the reporters to several houses where other people have been killed by the rockets, most of which are made in China and paid for by the United States, which has been the rebels’ principal provider of arms.

In an hourlong anniversary address to party leaders and delegates from many of the world’s Communist nations, Najibullah did not once use the word communism . He emphasized his government’s commitment to private initiative and promised to remain committed to the teachings of Islam. He appealed to Western nations for foreign investment and vowed that the state will protect all such investment.

Critical of His Party

Najibullah was sharply critical of the performance of his People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan in the years since the so-called Saur Revolution, a name taken from the Pushtun word for the month. He said it had ignored and oversimplified the complexities of Afghanistan’s religious- and tribal-based culture.

“We have made mistakes, even big ones,” he declared from the podium in the assembly hall of the heavily fortified presidential palace, as the rebel rockets fell around the city.

He said the rebels were the aggressors and said they had failed to respond to his call for reconciliation and negotiations on power-sharing, a call he has issued repeatedly since the Soviet withdrawal.

He made no reference to the rocket attack, but a government spokesman said that more than 54 rockets hit the city during the day.

Whether the Afghan government will succeed in its campaign to alter its image in the international community is not yet clear, but in Kabul there are few signs of increased popularity.

There were no celebrations in the streets Thursday. Najibullah stayed in his palace, which is protected by tanks and troops.