Rocket attack kills civilian in Afghanistan

A rocket attack by unknown parties in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat has left at least one person dead.

Media sources and local officials said on Sunday that rockets hit a wall of the provincial governor’s office building and nearby houses in the city, killing at least one civilian.

A security meeting was underway in the governor’s office building at the time of the attack.

Majeed Rozi, the chief of police in Herat, has confirmed that three rockets were fired.

It is still unclear who was behind the attack; however, such attacks are often carried out by the Taliban militant group.

The Taliban militant group recently launched its annual spring offensive against Afghan security forces and US-led foreign forces across the conflict-ridden country.

Earlier on Sunday, the group confirmed that its leader, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, had been killed in a US drone attack.

Mullah Abdul Rauf, a senior commander of the militant group, said their leader was assassinated by a US drone raid on Friday night “in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area.”

On Saturday, the US Department of Defense, while saying that it was still doing verification work to ascertain that Mullah Mansour had indeed been killed in the raid, claimed that the militant leader had been “actively involved with planning attacks against facilities in Kabul and across Afghanistan, presenting a threat to Afghan civilians and security forces, our personnel and coalition partners.”

He was “an obstacle to peace and reconciliation between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, prohibiting Taliban leaders from participating in peace talks with the Afghan government that could lead to an end to the conflict,” the Pentagon added.