14 Killed During Rebel Rocket Attacks on Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan — A barrage of rockets fired by Muslim guerrillas slammed into Kabul on Saturday, with one spraying shrapnel and glass around a crowded bazaar. At least 14 people were killed in the attacks, official Radio Kabul said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Nabi Amani said the U.S.-backed guerrillas are stepping up such attacks to give them more leverage before Monday’s U.S.-Soviet talks on Afghanistan in Stockholm. The Soviets, who fought alongside Afghan government troops for nine years, are the Marxist government’s major arms supplier.

Official Radio Kabul, in a broadcast monitored in Islamabad, Pakistan, said 14 people were killed and 50 injured in the attacks. Amani, however, said 12 people were killed. Eight people died and 40 were injured when the rocket hit the bazaar, he said, while four others died when rockets landed around the center and south of the capital.

In the past month, the rebels, who are fighting to establish an Islamic republic in Afghanistan, have been launching long-range rockets from behind the hills that ring Kabul. More than 200 people have died, virtually all of them civilians.