180 Casualties Reported in Afghan Missile Attacks

As many as 180 people were killed or wounded when anti-Taliban forces fired their deadliest salvo in years into this capital, hitting a market and a busy residential area, a Taliban spokesman said Sunday.

It was the worst attack on Kabul in years and coincided with a major anti-opposition drive by the Taliban, which set the fundamentalist Sunni Muslim militia on a collision course with Iran, which is largely Shiite Muslim.

At least eight Russian-made Lunar and Uragan rockets struck the capital between midafternoon and dusk, when people were going home to comply with an evening curfew, residents said.

One of the missiles fired by the forces of opposition leader Ahmed Shah Masoud hit Baharistan market to the west of the capital, destroying shops and stalls. Another struck a crowded northern suburb.

“The destruction is enormous, and the casualties could go higher and higher than dozens of people,” one area resident said by telephone.

Residents said they believed that Masoud’s goal was to force the Taliban to withdraw men, airplanes and equipment from Wardak province, west of Kabul, where the militia is trying to link up with forces that seized the town of Bamian last week.

Masoud’s forces are at a standoff with the Taliban only 15 miles from the center of Kabul and are the militia’s main remaining enemy.

Recent victories gave the Taliban control of more than 90% of the country and unleashed a war of words with Iran after “renegade” Taliban fighters killed nine Iranians, eight of them diplomats, after capturing the opposition bastion of Mazar-i-Sharif last month.