U.S. anti-missile batteries intercepted multiple rockets fired at Kabul's airport Monday morning, less than 48 hours before the United States was set to complete its full military pullout from Afghanistan.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths and it wasn't clear who launched the rockets, but both The New York Times and Reuters said U.S. defense systems knocked the rockets down.
A U.S. military official, who asked not to be named, said the C-RAM Anti-Air Defense System shot down the rockets. C-RAM is a fully automated weapon system that can track down incoming attacks.
The machine gun system has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan to destroy incoming projectiles targeting American military installations.
In a statement, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the rocket attack and was informed operations continue as planned and uninterrupted at the Kabul airport.
According to witnesses, the rockets hit a neighborhood in Salim Karwan in the capital city of Kabul. Gunfire then erupted, but it was not clear who was shooting, The Associated Press said.
A civilian vehicle was apparently used as a makeshift launchpad in the attack. Footage obtained by CNN showed a burning vehicle on a street in Kabul's Khair Khana neighborhood after the rockets were unleashed.
The U.S. has already airlifted around 114,400 people -- including foreign nationals and at-risk Afghans -- in a massive drawdown that unfurled a day before the Taliban insurgents seized control of Kabul on Aug. 15.
The rocket assault came a day after the U.S. carried out a drone strike that took down a vehicle that U.S. officials claimed posed an "imminent ISIS-K threat" to the Hamid Karzai international airport.
Captain Bill Urban, a representative of the U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. is confident the drone strike hit its target, and preliminary reports suggested no civilian were hurt in the strike.
The number of American combat personnel at the Kabul airport had been reduced to under 4,000 over the weekend.
Efforts to evacuate has become more overwhelming after an Islamic State suicide bomb attack outside the airport gates claimed the lives of Afghan civilians. Some 13 U.S. military soldiers were killed in the suicide attack.
