Ban Ki-moon's plane diverted due to rocket fire
Rocket fire prevented a plane carrying UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and Sweden’s foreign minister from landing at Kabul airport in Afghanistan, officials said today.
The news was first reported on Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Bildt’s blog and confirmed by the Swedish Foreign Ministry.
Mr Bildt said he and Mr Ban landed instead at the US Bagram base, outside Kabul, early today and then travelled in Blackhawk helicopters to the capital for the international conference on Afghanistan’s future.
Mr Bildt wrote that “rockets hit the airport just as we were on our way to land”.
The conference was also being attended by Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and delegations from more than 60 nations.
