SEVERAL rockets were fired at Kabul airport yesterday, less than 48 hours before the United States is due to complete its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Eyewitnesses said the rockets were launched from a car and were aimed towards the airport Monday morning. It appears Salim Karwan, a neighborhood adjacent to the airport, was hit in one of the blasts. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Smoke could be seen rising above buildings in the north of the city, where the Hamid Karzai international airport is located, and gunfire could be heard after the explosions. Locals reported hearing the activation of the airport’s missile defense system, and pictures on social media showed shrapnel falling on to rooftops and the street, suggesting that at least one rocket had been intercepted. Social media posts, which could not immediately be verified, also showed a vehicle in flames after being apparently struck by retaliatory fire.

In Washington, the White House issued a statement saying U.S. President Joe Biden was being briefed on “the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai international airport” in Kabul.

It followed warnings issued by Biden on Saturday that another terrorist attack in Kabul was highly likely in the next 24 to 36 hours. On Thursday, Islamic State, rivals of the Taliban, carried out a suicide bomb attack at the airport that killed more than 150 people, including 13 U.S. troops, and IS militants pose the greatest threat to the U.S. evacuations.

Biden has set a deadline of Aug. 31 to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan. The U.K., NATO and all other Western countries ended their evacuation missions over the weekend.

America’s top diplomat, secretary of state Antony Blinken, described the final few days as “the most dangerous time in an already extraordinarily dangerous mission.”

On Sunday night, a U.S. drone strike blew up a vehicle in Kabul carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from IS before they could attack the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul airport, American officials said. It was the second retaliatory airstrike the U.S. has conducted against the militant group since Thursday’s suicide attack.

Despite initial denials by the U.S. that there had any civilian casualties in Sunday’s strike, an Afghan official said three children were killed. U.S. officials said the vehicle which was hit had been filled with explosives, causing secondary explosions.

So far, U.S. evacuation flights have taken more than 114,000 U.S. and Afghan citizens out of Kabul airport. The U.S. said they had the capacity to withdraw a final 300 Americans before a complete withdrawal today.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the U.S. does not plan to have an ongoing embassy presence after the final troop withdrawal. But he pledged the U.S. “will make sure there is safe passage for any American citizen, any legal permanent resident” after Tuesday, as well as for “those Afghans who helped us.”

The Taliban have said they will allow normal travel after the U.S. withdrawal is completed today and they assume control of the airport. (SD-Agencies)