Three dead after militants attack children’s charity in Afghanistan
● Terrorists in gun battle with police ● Suicide bomber began assault
Militants stormed a the offices of the charity Save the Children in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province yesterday, killing two security guards and a civilian, and triggering hours-long clashes with the police, provincial officials said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The assault started with a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives at the provincial offices of Save the Children in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar.
The stand-off ended after eight hours, with police killing two other attackers, according to Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor.
At least 26 people, including six police officers, were wounded during the attack, he added.
IS said it was behind the attack in a statement on its Aamaq media arm. It said a suicide bomber attacked with an explosive-laden vehicle and a subsequent raid targeted “British and Swedish foundations and Afghan government institutes”.
Both the Taliban and IS are active in eastern Nangarhar province.
Zabihullah Zemarai, a member of the provincial council in Nangarhar, said police forces managed to rescue more than 40 people, mostly employees of the Save the Children group, as the attack unfolded.
Monica Zanarelli, the International Committee of the Red Cross’ head of delegation in Afghanistan, said that an attack against an organisation that helps children is “outrageous”.
“Civilians and aid workers must not be targeted,” she said in a statement.
“Increased violence has made operating in Afghanistan difficult for many organizations.”
Amnesty International’s chief for South Asia, Biraj Patnaik, expressed solidarity with Save the Children following the attack.
“It is an organisation that has worked tirelessly in Afghanistan for more than four decades, delivering outstanding work during some of the country’s most turbulent periods,” Patnaik said. “Bombing and shooting people who are working for no other reason than to help improve the lives of young Afghans is a cowardly and despicable act.”
The attack followed a deadly weekend siege of the Intercontinental Hotel in the capital Kabul in which 22 people were killed, including 14 foreigners.
Multiple foreign citizens were killed and injured in the Taliban’s 13-hour siege of the hotel, the US State Department said on Tuesday. It said no exact figures were imme- diately available for either the US fatalities or injuries.
Eleven of the 14 foreigners had been previously identified as working for the private Afghan airline Kamair. During a ceremony at Kabul’s airport yesterday, the bodies of seven Ukrainian citizens were handed over to officials for transfer to Ukraine.
Mirwais Samadi, head of the consulate department at Afghanistan’s foreign ministry, said the Kabul attack was launched by “terrorists” and their supporters.
“Some of our countrymen were martyred and some foreign nationals also were killed,” he said. “We express our condolences and thoughts to the victims and families.”
In eastern Ghazni province, meanwhile, four Afghan policemen were killed after their checkpoint came under attack by insurgents, said Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor.
Six insurgents were killed and three were wounded in the battle, which took place early on Wednesday morning in the Dayak district, said Noori.