Mattis targeted in Kabul rocket attack

U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis was the target of a failed attack on Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Wednesday, according to Taliban leaders. The rocket attack, which occurred hours after Mattis left the airport, wounded 11 civilians. Mattis and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg are in Afghanistan for a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. The incident at the airport followed an attack by nearly 300 Taliban insurgents on a security post in western Afghanistan late Tuesday. The insurgents killed at least 10 police officers in an ongoing battle to maintain the post in Farha province, according to Hakim Noori, the governor of the Pusht Rod district. Taliban fighters mined the area around the base to prevent authorities from sending in reinforcements. Mattis and Stoltenberg at a Wednesday news conference pledged their continued support to Afghanistan, saying they would do everything to ensure the war-torn country “doesn’t again become a safe haven for international terrorists.”