The Independent
By Jerome Starkey in Kabul

A salvo of Taliban rockets shook Kabul’s diplomatic district yesterday as insurgents ramped up attacks countrywide in a bid to derail presidential elections, less than three weeks away.

At least nine rockets rained down on the capital. Two of them landed close to the British and American embassies. Police said a child was hurt in a residential district and buildings were damaged but no one was killed.

Indiscriminate rocket attacks are not uncommon but yesterday’s barrage was bigger than anything experienced in the capital for years and it marked the beginning of a day of violence which saw five people killed in Zabul and a failed assassination attempt against a provincial governor.

The rockets shattered Kabul’s sense of oasis and reminded people in the capital that the insurgents were never far away. President Hamid Karzai was in Gardez, in the south-east of the country, where he urged the Taliban, who have vowed to boycott the elections, to take part in the poll.