Three car bomb explosions occurred in the eastern part of capital Kabul on Wednesday hours after US President Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan late last night on an unannounced visit to meet his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai.
According to reports, the blasts were followed by sporadic shooting.
Minutes after the blasts, the US embassy in Kabul immediately sounded alarms, warning staff to “take cover, move away from the windows”.
The attack occurred on the Jalalabad road, where there are several foreign military bases.
Kabul police official Mohammed Zahir said, “Wednesday morning’s blasts were heard near a camp for foreigners in the east of Kabul,” adding, “Shooting was heard after the blasts.”
During his brief visit, the US President signed a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan during this trip which coincides with the first anniversary of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s killing by US forces.
Osama was killed May 2, 2011 by US commandos who stormed his hideout in Pakistan’s Abbottabad city.
Obama’s visit to Afghanistan has come a week after the Afghan and US governments finalised the US-Afghan strategic pact’s draft.
At present, there are over 90,000 US troops in Afghanistan and the US is expected to draw down that number to 65,000 by the end of 2012 and to less than 20,000 by the end of 2014.
Before drafting the pact, the Afghan government had previously signed two key deals with the US.
These deals oblige the US military to hand over charge of the Bagram detention centre to Afghan administration and allow Afghan security forces to lead special operations including the controversial night raids.
–Agencies