An attack on the American University of Afghanistan has ended, a senior police officer said today, after at least seven people were killed and more than 30 were wounded.
Advertisement
The attack at around 6:30pm (local time) on Wednesday began with a large explosion that officials said was a auto bomb, followed by gunfire, as suspected militants battled into the complex where foreign staff and hundreds of pupilswere working. It was not clear whether foreigners were among those hurt.
A U.S. defense official said a team of USA military advisors are helping Afghan forces to respond to the attack, but not in a combat role.
A police operation is set to begin to search for any attackers on the property, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Siddiq Siddiqui. “Two attackers were gunned down”, Fraidoon Obaidi, chief of Kabul police’s Criminal Investigation Department, told AFP.
It wasn’t immediately known who is responsible for the attack. He declined to speak further, saying the light from his cell phone could make him a target for any assailants at large.
Students reported barricading themselves in classrooms, pushing tables and chairs against the doors. Most appeared to have got away.
A student, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his safety, told CNN he was attending a lecture class when he heard a “very enormous and harsh sound” – an explosion roughly 50 meters from his classroom. Witnesses heard an explosion and gunfire on the heavily guarded campus.
He saw several people injured – some from glass, others by bullets.
The American State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs tweeted Wednesday that people should “exercise caution, avoid unnecessary movement in the area and monitor news for updates” as an incident continued to unfold at the the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul.
Some 35 students and nine police were injured and about 750 students and staff were rescued from the university.
Previously unknown armed men abducted two professors of the university couple of weeks ago on the same road Dar-ul-Aman road.
“The explosion lit up the whole university”, said Mr. Mukhtar, a local reporter and part-time student at the university.
“From behind its fortified walls, the university has operated relatively unscathed since it opened in 2006”, NPR’s Jacki Lyden noted at the time.
The uptick in violence comes as the Taliban escalate nationwide attacks, underscoring the worsening security situation since North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces ended their combat mission at the end of 2014.
Advertisement
Ghani condemned the assault as an “attack on education institutions and public places” and said it would “strength our goal to eliminate the roots of terrorism”.
