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Attack on American University in Afghanistan leaves 13 dead

Twelve people were killed in an attack on the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, a spokesman for the Chief of Kabul Police told CNN on Thursday.

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Elite Afghan forces surrounded the walled compound and eventually worked their way inside, according to a senior interior ministry official. Eyewitnesses say that a huge explosion was followed by gunfire, as militants stormed the complex where foreign students and staff were at work. Three police officers and two security guards were also killed, the ministry said. “Right now a clearance operation is ongoing by a criminal technique team”.

“Terrorists should realize that despite all the challenges, the Afghan people and the government will continue the path they have chosen and they will overcome all the challenges”, he said in a statement, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported.

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.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military advisers helped Afghan forces to respond to the attack, a USA official said, without specifying how many troops were involved.

The students then barricaded themselves inside the classroom, pushing chairs and desks against the door, and staying on the floor. It was very close.

The gunmen detonated explosives and fired guns, witnesses said, causing some students and faculty to flee. “I ran toward the emergency exit with other students, climbed the wall and jumped outside”.

No one has taken responsibility for the university raid.

In this month, It is the second time that the university or its staff have been targeted by the militants. Earlier in August, two teachers, an American and an Australian, were abducted at gunpoint from a nearby road.

The American University of Afghanistan, which opened 10 years ago, has about 1,700 students, according to its website.

Afghan policemen stand at the site of an attack in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 25, 2016.

University authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Pentagon said US military advisers were on the ground with Afghan security forces at the university.

The uptick in violence comes as the Taliban escalate nationwide attacks, underscoring the worsening security situation in Afghanistan since North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces ended their combat mission at the end of 2014.

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The U.S. State Department condemned what it called “an attack on the future of Afghanistan”.

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. “We are trying to assess the situation,” President Mark English told The Associated Pr