Under siege

Both the Taliban and Daesh have stepped up their attacks in Kabul since 2016. Here are some of the key moments over the last two years.

After carrying out multiple attacks across Afghanistan, Daesh claimed its first assault in Kabul in July 2016 as twin explosions ripped through crowds of Shiite ethnic Hazaras, killing at least 85 people and wounding more than 400. Since then Daesh has escalated its presence in the city, claiming nearly 20 attacks across Kabul in the past 18 months, and establishing cells.

A massive truck bomb on May 31, 2017 killed more than 150 people and wounded hundreds in the city’s fortified diplomatic quarter, the deadliest attack in Kabul since the US invasion began in late 2001.

The bomb, which no group has claimed responsibility for, prompted authorities to develop a new plan to expand their ring of steel around the city and impose tight restrictions on large vehicles. Among many smaller assaults which killed dozens of people in 2017 were an attack on Afghanistan’s largest military hospital in March which officially left at least 50 people dead.

Just four days into 2018 another suicide blast rocked Kabul, in a Daeshclaimed attack which killed at least 13 people.

Then the Taliban stormed the landmark Intercontinental Hotel late on January 20 in a complex assault in which witnesses said gunmen went from room to room targeting foreigners for nearly 12 hours.