Russia’s Kabul Embassy Closing After Attack
At least 14 rockets hit the Russian Embassy here Thursday, wounding two people and prompting Moscow to announce it will close the mission.
The barrage was part of fierce fighting in the capital that flared after two days of relative calm between forces supporting the interim Islamic government and a renegade guerrilla faction entrenched outside the city.
Shortly after the assault, the government announced a temporary cease-fire to allow Afghans to worship on the Muslim Sabbath and to give diplomats time to leave.
Rebels who have been shelling the city for nearly a month agreed to honor the truce, which is to run from early morning to early afternoon today.
But a spokesman in Pakistan for the renegade force, the fundamentalist Hezb-i-Islami, said the cease-fire would collapse if the government used the lull to bring in more members of a rival militia from northern Afghanistan.
Hezb-i-Islami’s firebrand leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has vowed to destroy the capital unless the government expels the Uzbek-dominated militia.
At least 2,000 people have died in Hekmatyar’s siege of Kabul.
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