KABUL: Foreign staff and dozens of students were trapped
inside the campus of the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul on
Wednesday after suspected militants attacked it with explosives and gunfire, a
senior government official said.
The interior ministry official said that elite Afghan
forces had surrounded the university compound, where shooting lasted for more
than an hour after the assault began at around 6.30pm.
Witnesses at the scene said gunfire had since stopped,
and Special Forces had made their way into the compound.
News on casualties was sketchy, but Mohammad Saleem
Rasouly, head of hospitals in the Afghan capital, told Reuters that at least
one student had been killed and 14 wounded.
Islamist militant groups, mainly the Afghan Taliban and
a local offshoot of Islamic State, have claimed a string of atrocities aimed at
destabilising the country and toppling the Western-backed government of
President Ashraf Ghani.
No one has claimed the university attack yet.
Early reports suggested that several gunmen, some
wearing suicide vests, were involved, the official said.
"Several gunmen attacked the American University in
Kabul and there are reports of gunfire and explosions," he said.
"They are inside the compound and there are foreign professors along with
hundreds of students."
Ahmad Shaheer, a student, told Reuters by telephone that
he was trapped inside the university. "We are stuck inside our classroom
and there are bursts of gunfire," he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment