Although no terrorist group has yet claimed responsibility for the region’s most recent atrocity, the Afghan Taliban and a local ISIS offshoot are working to destabilize the country, according to Reuters – and at the university’s Kabul campus, the attackers certainly managed to wreak havoc. Among them was Associated Press photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize victor Massoud Hossaini.
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The attack on AUAF comes two weeks after two university staff, an American and an Australian, were kidnapped from their auto by unknown gunmen. Explosions and gunfire rang out as militants stormed the elite American University of Afghanistan in Kabul on August 24, 2016, prompting desperate calls for help from students trapped inside classrooms, in the latest attack in the Afghan capital.
The attackers also entered Noor Hospital, which is adjacent to the university.
Wednesday’s attack comes one day after a USA service member was killed and another injured by a bomb while on patrol in Helmand Province.
The American University of Afghanistan has about 1,700 students and advertises itself as the country’s only not-for-profit, “non-partisan”, co-educational university. The university maintains partnerships with US colleges, including Stanford, Georgetown, and the University of California. “We are stuck inside our classroom and there are bursts of gunfire”, Ahmad Shaheer, a student, said.
School President Mark English confirmed the attack to The Associated Press.
Two teachers, an American and an Australian, remain missing after being abducted at gunpoint from a road nearby on August 7.
“We’re dealing with a complex attack inside the American University”. Special forces were on the scene along with American military advisers. The individual killed is reported to be a guard employed by the university, according to a government official.
Witnesses said they heard gunshots and a blast, while Tarek Mahjari, a reporter for Afghan news channel TOLOnews, told his employer in a phone interview that fires were burning on the campus.
Five people were taken to Emergency Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, CNN said citing hospital’s tweet.
“One of my family members who was there told me the attackers had maps, they were drinking Red Bulls, clearly aiming to stay as long as they could and some of them were tossing hand grenades”, he said. The Taliban have been fighting to take over the Kabul government for almost two decades.
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The students allegedly barricaded themselves into classrooms, pushing chairs and desks against the door and keeping their bodies low to the floor.
