Two killed in ISIL raid on Iraq embassy
At least two people were killed when ISIL launched an attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul yesterday, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up outside the gates followed by three gunmen storming the building.
The assault set off a fourhour firefight that Afghan security forces said ended only after they had killed all the attackers.
Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said two Afghan employees of the embassy had died in the attack. Three police were injured, he said.
As the attack unfolded there were conflicting reports of casualties, with a witness saying he saw the bodies of at least two policemen lying on the road outside the embassy soon after the attack began.
In its claim of responsibility, ISIL claimed that its fighters had killed seven guards.
ISIL also said only two of its followers were involved in the attack, not four as officials from the interior ministry had said.
Early reports suggested only attackers had been killed. “The quick-response police forces arrived in time and evacuated the Iraqi diplomats to a safe place,” Mr Danish said. “No embassy staff were harmed, only one policeman was wounded slightly.”
The Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad said the charge d’affairs was among those rescued and that it was monitoring the situation with Afghan authorities.
ISIL released a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, saying two members “attacked the Iraqi embassy building in the Afghan city of Kabul”.
The embassy is situated in a neighbourhood that is home to several hotels, banks as well as large supermarkets
and several police compounds.
“I heard a big blast followed by several explosions and gunfire,” said Ahmad Ali, a shopkeeper.
“People were worried and closed their shops to run for safety. The roads are still blocked by security forces.”
The attack is the latest to rock Kabul, which is regularly hit by bomb blasts and militant assaults.
The resurgent Taliban claim many of the attacks as they step up their attempts to drive out foreign forces.
But ISIL, recently ousted from the Iraqi city of Mosul, has been expanding its footprint in east Afghanistan and has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Kabul.
First emerging in 2015, the group’s local affiliate, ISIL Khorasan Province (IS-K), overran large parts of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces near the Pakistan border, where they engaged in a turf war with the Taliban.
US forces in Afghanistan have repeatedly targeted the group, killing its leader, Abu Sayed, and several senior advisers in a July 11 strike in Kunar, the Pentagon said.
The decision to deploy the so-called “mother of all bombs” also targeted ISIL hideouts in Nangarhar, according to the Afghan defence ministry, although fighting in the area has continued.
Pentagon officials say the group now numbers fewer than 1,000 in Afghanistan.
“We will be relentless in our campaign against IS-K. There are no safe havens in Afghanistan,” Gen John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said on Sunday.
The group is believed to be on the back foot in the Middle East, where analysts have said it has lost more than 60 per cent of its territory and 80 per cent of its revenue three years after declaring its self-styled caliphate across areas of Iraq and Syria.
But analysts also said yesterday’s attack in Kabul would be seen as a warning to Baghdad after its forces pushed ISIL out of Mosul.
“[ISIL] wants to send a message to many states, not just to Iraq, to prove that it is present everywhere, particularly after the victories of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul,” said Issam Al Fili,a professor of political sciences at Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad.
“Attacking embassies is part of the strategy of this kind of group, because embassies represent a strong symbol for the affected states,” he said.
The attack underscored ISIL’s increasing presence in Afghanistan, which continues to be affected by insecurity about 16 years after the US invasion to topple the Taliban regime.
Nato forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014. Since then Afghan troops and police, beset by soaring casualties, have struggled to beat back the resurgent Taliban, while facing the growing menace of ISIL.
The US is considering whether to send thousands more troops to help the beleaguered Afghan forces.
ISIL has been expanding its footprint in east Afghanistan and has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Kabul