IS suicide bombers storm Afghan state broadcaster
SUICIDE bombers stormed the national television station in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad city yesterday, killing six people as gunfights and explosions rocked the building with journalists trapped inside, officials and eyewitnesses said.
At least 17 others were left wounded in the four-hour assault on Radio Television Afghanistan, which marks the latest in a string of assaults on media workers in the conflict-torn country.
Islamic State jihadists have claimed responsibility for the raid in eastern Nangarhar province, where the United States military dropped its largest nonnuclear bomb last month in an unprecedented strike.
“There were four attackers – one blew himself up at the gate, killing the guard. Three others entered the building but were killed after our security forces fought them for four hours,” Nangar- har Governor Gulab Mangal said.
“Six people, including four civilians and two policemen, were killed and 17 others wounded,” he added, blaming IS for the attack. A health worker said many of those brought to hospital suffered gunshot wounds.
An RTA photographer said he fled the building as soon as the gunfight erupted, but many of his colleagues were stuck inside until the assailants were killed.
Islamic State insurgents are active in Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital. According to the US Forces-Afghanistan, defections and recent battlefield losses have reduced the local IS presence from a peak of as many as 3,000 fighters to a maximum of 800.
The Pentagon has reportedly asked the White House to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to break the deadlocked fight against the Taliban.
US troops in Afghanistan number about 8,400 today, and there are an- other 5,000 from NATO allies, who also mainly serve in an advisory capacity – a far cry from the US presence of more than 100,000 six years ago.
Yesterday’s attack underscores the growing dangers faced by media workers in Afghanistan as the security situation worsens.
The country suffered its deadliest year on record for journalists in 2016, according to the Afghan Journalists’ Safety Committee (AJSC), adding that the country is the second most dangerous for reporters in the world after Syria. As least 13 journalists were killed last year, AJSC said, claiming that the Taliban was behind at least 10 of the deaths.
Dan Coats, the head of US intelligence agencies, warned last week that the security and political situation in Afghanistan “will also almost certainly deteriorate through 2018, even with a modest increase in the military assistance by the US”.