Attack on American University in Kabul leaves 10 dead

KABUL ( AP) – A brazen, hours- long militant attack on the American University of Afghanistan ended early yesterday after at least 10 people were killed and dozens were wounded, a government spokesman said.

The dead included seven students, two police officers and a security guard, according to Interior Ministry spokes- man Sediq Sediqqi. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the assault, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Taliban.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid would only tell the media that the group is “investigating.’’

“Most of the dead were killed by gunshots near the windows of their classrooms,’’ Sediqqi said.

At least 37 people were wounded, he said, including seven police officers.

The assault began just before 7 p.m. Wednesday with a suicide car bombing at the university’s entrance that breached the security walls and allowed two “terrorists’’ to enter the campus, he said.

They were armed with grenades and automatic weapons. The siege of the university lasted almost nine hours, before police killed the two assailants around 3:30 a.m., he said.

More than 150 students who had been trapped in university buildings had been rescued by special police units.

Earlier, the Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said one foreign teacher was among the wounded.