‘Insiders aided Kabul hospital attack’
KABUL: Insiders including two interns were among the attackers who launched a gun-and-grenade assault this week on Afghanistan’s largest military hospital, killing more than 100 people, multiple surviving staff and security sources told AFP.
The six-hour attack on the Sardar Daud Khan hospital on Wednesday began when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the back entrance, paving the way for gunmen disguised as doctors, according to the official account of the assault.
But multiple survivors spoke of a “simultaneous massacre”, revealing that attackers already positioned inside the facility – some of them familiar staff – launched a killing spree with guns, grenades and knives immediately after the blast.
They included two interns in their 20s who had worked in the facility for months, according to a hospital official who guided Afghan special forces to rescue the victims.
“We all knew them,” he told AFP, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the media.
“One of them blew himself up and the other was shot down by special forces.”
Another doctor, badly wounded in the attack, said one of the interns had worked under him. “He was my student, a familiar face... It was painful to see him shooting at everyone,” he told AFP.
The involvement of the two interns was corroborated by an Afghan security source.
The carnage inside the heavily guarded hospital points at a spectacular intelligence failure and spotlights how insurgents have managed to infiltrate top government and military institutions in Afghanistan.
Defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish conceded that “the attack was carried out from both outside and inside”.
“This could not have been possible without the help of people inside,” Radmanish told AFP. “Some individuals are being questioned.”
The Islamic State group claimed it was behind the attack via its propaganda agency Amaq – hours after the Taliban denied responsibility.
But the survivors AFP spoke to said the attackers chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and “Long live Taliban” in Pashto.
Officials have also cast doubt that the attack was the handiwork of IS, a group seeking to expand its foothold in Afghanistan but which faces heavy pressure from both US air strikes and a ground offensive led by Afghan forces.
“We have leads and clues that contradict IS’s claim,” a senior Afghan security official told AFP earlier this week. — AFP