June 23, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 18, 1429

KHOST, June 22: Rockets fired from Pakistan hit a residential area in eastern Afghanistan killing four civilians, Afghan officials said on Sunday.

A woman and three children were killed when rockets launched from about 300 metres (yards) inside Pakistani territory landed near the eastern town of Khost on Saturday, close to a large Nato base, provincial governor Arsala Jamal said.

“It was late evening. I was praying in the mosque when suddenly the sound of explosions started,” said Aziz Khan, a driver who lives in the village.

“I stopped my prayers and rushed outside ... I saw one of the rockets had hit my house.

“Inside I found three of my children dead. My wife and two sons were wounded. My wife had prepared food and gathered the kids to feed them when the rocket hit about 10 metres (yards) away from them. My brother’s children and his wife were also there. Four of his kids and his wife were also wounded.”

Around the same time on Saturday evening, a rocket fired from Pakistan hit a hospital in the of Kunar province, killing a man and wounding another man and a woman, the governor said.

Pakistan’s army denied firing artillery into Paktika and said the rounds could have been fired by militants.

International forces and militants exchanged fire on the Afghan side of the border and Pakistani forces also fired at the militants on the frontier in the North Waziristan region, Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said.

“No it’s not possible. It was not from our fire, it could have been the militants’ fire but not from our positions,” Abbas said when asked about the Nato report of shells landing close to one of its forward bases and inside an Afghan army compound.

“We openly engaged the militants on the border, who the Afghan forces were also engaging. There is no possibility of our engaging the camps of the Afghan forces inside Afghanistan.”—Reuters