Rocket fired at Kabul airport, falling into residential area

KABUL - A rocket was fired at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan where the US-led evacuation flights were continuing but failed to hit the target, a witness told Xinhua on Sunday.

"The rocket struck Khwaja Bughra, a populated residential area in Police District 15, in the west of the Hamid Karzai International Airport roughly at 4:55 pm local time. Casualties are feared," witness Ghulam Hazrat said.

A thick gray smoke was seen rising above the site. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

Any big bang causes panic among the war-weary Kabul residents.

On Thursday, a deadly suicide bomb blast and gun firing claimed by ISIS-K, a local affiliate of the Islamic State group, killed 170 Afghans and 13 US troops at an eastern gate of the Kabul airport and injured nearly 200 others.

Dozens of planes, including military planes, took off from the airport since early Sunday. All US and coalition forces are expected to leave the country on Aug 31, a planned deadline.