Kabul campus attack leaves 13 dead
A brazen, hours-long militant attack on the American University of Afghanistan ended early Thursday after at least 13 people were killed and dozens wounded in the assault on the sprawling campus on Kabul’s outskirts, a government spokesman said.
The attack underscored how despite efforts by the Afghan authorities to improve security, militants in this country are still able to stage large-scale and complex attacks, including in the capital.
The dead included seven students and one teacher, according to Afghan authorities. Three police officers and two security guards were also killed, the Interior Ministry said.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the assault but suspicions are pointing to the Taliban. The group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, would only tell the media that the Taliban are “investigating.”
President Ashraf Ghani laid the blame on neighbouring Pakistan, accusing it of supporting the Taliban in sanctuaries across the border, and saying the attack had been “organized” in Pakistan. Ghani spoke by telephone with Pakistan’s army chief, Raheel Sharif, and demanded “serious action,” his office said. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the attack.
Pakistan’s military also issued a statement on the conversation between Ghani and Sharif, saying “Pakistani soil would not be allowed to be used for any type of terrorism in Afghanistan.”
It said Kabul had provided three cellphone numbers “allegedly used during the university attack.” An investigation had traced them to an Afghan company “whose spillover signal affects some areas along the Pak-Afghan border,” it said, without further detail.
“Most of the dead were killed by gunshots near the windows of their classrooms,” said Sediq Sediqqi, the spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. The ministry said 36 people were wounded, including nine police officers.
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 car bombing at the university’s entrance.
The blast breached the security walls and allowed two other militants, armed with grenades and automatic weapons, to enter the campus, Sediqqi said. The siege of the university lasted almost nine hours, before police killed the two assailants around 3:30 a.m., he added.