The Times
Jeorme Starkey in Kabul

The head of the French Army in Afghanistan survived a Taleban rocket attack on a crowded market yesterday that killed 12 people and wounded 38.

Brigadier-General Marcel Druart was meeting tribal elders in Kapisa, 30 miles (50km) outside Kabul, when rockets hit a bazaar nearby. Witnesses said that the rockets landed within 200 metres (655ft) of the government building in Tagab Valley where the meeting was being held. The attack came a day after more than 700 French troops and 100 Afghan soldiers began an offensive in the area.

Troops said that the meeting, known as a shura, was the target, although no Nato troops were hurt.

A French captain, identified only as Michel, said that three of the dead were children. Three American Black Hawks and a French Caracal helicopter evacuated the most seriously wounded to a military hospital at Bagram airbase. (Read more)