A contract worker from Vancouver has been slightly hurt in an attack on NATO's main base in Kabul, Afghanistan. A rocket exploded just metres away from sleeping troops and civilian workers in the first attack involving Canadian soldiers since they arrived in August.

The strike on Camp Warehouse came on Thursday at 9:50 p.m. on the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and a field in Pennsylvania.

A 120-mm rocket struck a shipping container five metres from the nearest Canadian tent on the northeast corner of the base.

The tent where Kurt, who didn't want to give his last name, was lying in his cot was covered in debris and perforated by shrapnel holes the size of a nickel.

Kurt, a 24-year-old contract worker from Vancouver, was the only known casualty in the attack.

"I heard a loud shot ... it sounded like it was a release," he said.

"It got closer and then in not even 10 seconds it had exploded right behind this tent. I didn't know what was going on. As I heard the rocket get louder and louder I took cover."

He was hit in his lower back. Doctors could find no shrapnel inside him, but he had a laceration the size of a golf ball at the base of his spine.

A second rocket may have been fired at the military compound at Kabul International Airport but didn't come close.

A third explosion was believed to have detonated within five kilometres of the main Canadian base, Camp Julien, at 11:05 p.m., although its commander, Lt.-Col. Don Denne, dismissed any suggestion the dull thump was part of a co-ordinated attack.

CTV's Matt McClure, who is stationed at Camp Julien, reports that so far no one has claimed responsibility.

"Clearly the suspicion has to lay with al Qaeda or Taliban militants. Things have been relatively quiet here since the Canadians arrived but there have been numerous threats," McClure said.

The 1,950 Canadian troops in Kabul went on the "highest state of alert" for several hours before returning to their normal readiness as part of the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF).

Located about 30 kilometres north of the main Canadian camp, Camp Warehouse is home to several international contingents. About 300 Canadians live on the base, including Brig.-Gen. Peter Devlin, the brigade commander.

The rocket blasted a hole through the top of one container and left an exit hole the size of a softball in another. The side of the first container was peppered with shrapnel holes.

A small depression lay in the ground where the main body of shrapnel hit just a few metres from the nearest tent and some hescos, or earth-filled baskets caged in wire that surround each tent, were slightly damaged.

The attacks come one day after Germany and the United States asked NATO to expand its mandate beyond Kabul to help reconstruction teams outside the capital.

Nearly 2,000 Canadian soldiers are leading the international security mission in Afghanistan. The soldiers are patrolling the outskirts of Kabul and have been searching nearby mountains for signs of rebel fighters.

About two dozen soldiers from the 5,000-strong ISAF have been killed in hostile action since early 2002.

With reports from CTV's Matt McClure and The Canadian Press