The World - News from March 8, 1989

Rockets fired by Afghan rebels destroyed an airliner and killed two passengers at Jalalabad airport, 70 miles east of Kabul, a government official said. An unknown number of other passengers managed to escape. The official said the Soviet-built plane, part of the Afghan air force but of a type commonly used to transport civilians in Afghanistan, was hit as it was about to take off from Jalalabad for Kabul. Artillery and missile attacks on Jalalabad have increased sharply in recent days, and Afghan government officials say they are convinced that the rebels want to seize the city and proclaim it as the seat of their recently proclaimed interim government.