An nearly nine hour-long terror attack on the American University of Afghanistan ended Thursday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens, a government official said.
Advertisement
Kabul Police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said three policemen, seven pupils and two security guards were killed during the attack, the second incident involving the university this month.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assault, but the university has always been at high risk of attack from Taliban militants because of its association with foreigners.
Police searched the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul early Thursday and killed two attackers who stormed the campus with guns and explosives, Fraidoon Obaidi, chief of Kabul police’s criminal investigation department, told AFP early Thursday.
Police had evacuated between 700 and 750 students from the university.
The identity of the attackers is not clear till now, said a police spokesman.
AP photographer Massoud Hossaini was in a classroom with 15 students when he heard an explosion on the southern flank of the campus.
Ahmad Mukhtar was in the courtyard talking to friends when he heard gunshots followed by a large explosion. He said he saw one injured woman, a fellow student, her face a mask of blood. “Some students were crying, others were screaming”.
Local media reported that hundreds of students had been rescued during the overnight operation, many of whom tweeted desperate messages for help, with some using classroom furniture to barricade the doors. The Afghan government and supporting USA officials have battled the Taliban for years.
Wednesday’s attack comes just two and a half weeks after two AUAF faculty members – one American and one Australian – were kidnapped by armed gunmen, raising the question of whether the university was being targeted.
The assault began just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, a time when hundreds of students typically attend evening classes at the prestigious university, with a suicide vehicle bombing at the university’s entrance.
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 school is regarded as a symbol of cooperation between Afghanistan and the United States.
Advertisement
Taliban insurgents control large swaths of Afghanistan, and Afghan security forces are struggling to contain them, especially in the provinces of Helmand to the south and Kunduz to the north. Their whereabouts are unknown. The American University was established in 2006 to offer liberal arts courses modeled on the U.S. system.
