Afghan ballot audit starts

Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s election commission began auditing ballots Thursday after a U.S.-brokered deal between the two presidential contenders while a brazen attack on the Kabul airport underscored the dangers the country still faces in its troubled democracy.

The pre-dawn rocket attack on Kabul International Airport temporarily shut down the facility and set off a gunbattle with security forces in which four attackers were killed, officials said.

The militants occupied two buildings that were under construction some 700 yards north of the facility and used them to direct rockets and gunfire toward the airport and international jet fighters flying over Kabul, said Afghan army Gen. Afzal Aman. Several rockets hit the airport but no planes were damaged, he added.

Kabul Police Chief Mohammed Zahir Zahir said four of the attackers were killed and that the attack was halted without any civilian or police casualties. The airport later reopened and operations returned to normal, Zahir said.