This story was updated after a Monday morning Pentagon press briefing.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military says five rockets targeted the Kabul airport on Monday morning and U.S. forces on the airfield used a defensive system to intercept one, Army Maj. Gen. William D. “Hank” Taylor, Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations, told reporters Monday morning at a Pentagon press briefing.
“The force protection C-RAM did work. It did engage and had effect on the one, and then one did land in an area, and it was not effective,” Taylor said.
In an earlier statement, Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for the U.S. military’s Central Command, said there were no U.S. casualties. He said U.S. forces used a defensive weapon known by the acronym C-RAM — a Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar System — in response to the attack.
It targeted the rockets in a whirling hail of ammunition, Urban said. The system has a distinct, drill-like sound that echoed through the city at the time of the attack.
Urban said the Kabul airfield remains operational as the evacuation continued on Monday. Other details were not immediately available.
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Meanwhile, Ross Wilson, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul now working out of the airport, insisted that evacuations remain ongoing Monday. He dismissed as false claims that American citizens have been turned away or were denied access to the Kabul airport by U.S. Embassy staff or American troops.
“This is a high-risk operation. Claims that American citizens have been turned away or denied access to HKIA by Embassy staff or US Forces are false,” he said in a message on Twitter, using eh acronym for the Kabul airport. He did not elaborate.
