Six killed as suicide bomb attack targets TV station
Four-hour assault ends after three militants are killed
JALALABAD // Six people were killed when suicide bombers stormed the national television station in Afghanistan’s eastern Jalalabad city yesterday , with gunfights and explosions rocking the building.
Seventeen people were wounded in the four-hour assault on Radio Television Afghanistan – the latest in a string of attacks on media workers in the conflict-torn country.
ISIL militants have claimed responsibility for the raid in the eastern province of Nangarhar, where the US military dropped its largest non- nuclear bomb last month in an unprecedented strike.
“There were four attackers – one blew himself up at the gate, killing the guard,” said the governor of Nangarhar, Gulab Mangal. “Three others entered the building but were killed after our security forces fought them for four hours. Six people, including four civilians and two policemen, were killed and 17 others wounded.”
A health worker said many of those brought to hospital had suffered gunshot wounds.
An RTA photographer said he fled the building as soon as the gunfight erupted, but that many of his colleagues were stuck inside until the assailants were killed.
Last month, the US military dropped the GBU- 43/ B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb – dubbed the Mother Of All Bombs – on ISIL positions in Nangarhar, killing dozens of militants. The bombing sent shock waves around the world, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and the use of the weapon against a militant group that is not considered as big a threat as the resurgent Taliban. According to the US Forces-Afghanistan, defections and recent battlefield losses have reduced the local ISIL 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 another 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.