KABUL, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Five rockets were fired at Afghanistan's Bagram airfield on Thursday morning, the main U.S. military base in the country, but caused no casualties, confirmed the U.S.-led military alliance and the NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission.
"Five rockets were fired at Bagram airfield early this morning. There were no casualties or injuries. Our ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) partners are investigating the incident," said the Resolute Support mission in its Twitter account hours after the incident.
However, the military alliance didn't provide more details.
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian confirmed the incident and said in talks with Xinhua that five rockets were fired by unknown people from a car in Qalacha area, a suburban of Bagram district at 05:40 a.m. local time towards Bagram airfield but caused no loss of life and property damage.
Bagram airfield, 50 km north of Kabul, is the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan where countless militants and criminals including thousands of Taliban loyalists have been held in a jail controlled by the Afghan government.
The Afghan government set free 100 Taliban detainees on Wednesday and is expected to free 100 more on Thursday in line with the peace deal inked between the Taliban and the United States on Feb 29. As part of the agreement, the Afghan government exchanges 1,000 of its troopers with 5,000 Taliban detainees in government prisons.
The Taliban group has rejected its involvement in the attack on the U.S. military base in Bagram.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Majahid said in its Twitter account "Rocket attacks on Bagram airbase has no relations with the Majahidin (holy warriors) of Islamic Emirate (name of former Taliban regime) ousted in late 2001.
However, the Islamic State (IS) outfit, which is active in parts of the militancy-battered Afghanistan, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
This is the first time that the hardliner IS group has claimed responsibility for targeting a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.
