Sediqqi said the attack began soon before 7 p.m. local time Wednesday, when a suicide auto bombing damaged the security walls, allowing two attackers armed with grenades and automatic weapons to enter the campus, the AP reported.
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Police spokesman Sediq Sediqqi earlier said was still not clear if there were one or two attackers.
Students jumped from the second floor, some injuring themselves, or barricaded themselves into classrooms when the attack happened, reports said.
Ziaullah, a student at the university was injured and taken to hospital.
Some 35 more people including three female students are also among those injured in the deadly terrorist attack, according to an official who declined to be identified.
No foreigners have been reported among the wounded.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ended its combat mission in December 2014, but thousands of troops remain to train and assist Afghan forces, while several thousand more US soldiers are engaged in a separate mission focusing on al Qaeda and Islamic State.
The university opened for enrollment in 2006 to both men and women, and quickly became a prestigious education choice for some of Afghanistan’s elites, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees taught in English.
(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul). Afghan security forces rush to respond to a complex Taliban attack on the campus of the American University in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016.
This is the second attack involving the university within a span of a month.
Students and staff that were caught up in the attack shared updates on social media and sent urgent messages for help. “We were in the class when we heard a loud explosion followed by gunfire”.
CBS News journalist Ahmad Mukhtar said he and some acquaintances escaped but several others, including professors, were trapped inside university buildings.
“When we were running … we were hearing the fire of guns again and everybody was shouting ‘Let’s run, run!”
All other personnel on the campus were being evacuated, he said. Witnesses heard an explosion and gunfire on the heavily guarded campus.
She says she eventually made it out to safety.
On Wednesday, Hossaini was caught in an attack himself. “He shot at me and shattered the glass”, Hossaini said, adding that he fell on the glass and cut his hands. Some, however, have managed to escape.
“I asked my classmates to lie on the ground, and I ran to the other side, to the south side, to see what is going on”, ABC News quoted Hossaini as saying. “Attacking schools, universities and innocent people is a war crime”, Abdullah tweeted on Wednesday. Shahpour, who like many Afghans goes by one name.
No group is claiming responsibility.
“We will rebuild and we will reorganize and we will restart and we will not be deterred”.
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“Several gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul and there are reports of gunfire and explosions”, he said.
