TEHRAN – Saeed Khatibzadeh, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, condemned on Saturday a rocket attack on civilians in Kabul.

In a statement on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said Khatibzadeh condemned terrorist attacks against civilians and non-military sites in Afghanistan after a barrage of rockets hit the Afghan capital Kabul, one of which slammed into the Iranian embassy.

“Asked by journalists about the reports that several rockets have hit buildings in Kabul on Saturday, including on the premises of the Iranian embassy, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh condemned any terrorist attack targeting the Afghan people or the civilian sites,” the statement said.

Khatibzadeh also expressed sympathy with the government and people of Afghanistan, particularly the bereaved families of victims of the terrorist attack.

He added, “According to the inspection, at least one rocket has hit the internal premises of Iran’s embassy in Kabul so far in today’s terrorist missile attack on various locations in Kabul, including the city’s diplomatic neighborhood.”

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the rocket attack has caused minor damages to some facilities and equipment inside the Iranian embassy, but it, fortunately, has not posed any danger to the embassy staff.

On Saturday morning, a barrage of rockets hit several districts of Kabul, killing at least eight people and injuring several others. The attack took place one hour after two IED explosions rocked the city. The Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

Iran’s embassy in Kabul announced that two rockets landed inside the premises of the embassy, including one that didn’t go off.

“One of the rockets fired this morning, November 21, 2020, landed at the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Kabul and various shrapnel hit the main building, glasses, facilities, and equipment of the embassy,” the embassy said in a tweet, adding that the attack caused no casualties among the embassy staff.

Also on Saturday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke by phone with his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Haneef Atmar, who was recently appointed officially as the foreign minister of Afghanistan. Atmar had been serving as the acting foreign minister.

The chief Iranian diplomat congratulated Atmar on being appointed as foreign minister, expressing Iran’s readiness to continue cooperation with Afghanistan.

The Afghan foreign minister, for his part, thanked Zarif for his congratulations and stressed Kabul’s determination to comprehensively boost Afghanistan’s relations with Iran.