AP
Kabul
Gunmen stormed Kabul University on Monday as it hosted a book fair attended by the Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan, sparking an hours-long gun battle and leaving at least 19 dead and 22 wounded at the war-torn country’s largest school.
The ministry’s spokesman, Tariq Arian, said there were three attackers involved in the assault, all of whom were killed in the ensuing firefight. As the sun slowly set over the Afghan capital, there were few other details though the Taliban issued a statement denying they took part in the assault.
Five hours into the fighting, sporadic grenade explosions and automatic weapons fire echoed down the empty streets surrounding the university’s fenced compound. Afghan troops stood guard. Earlier, students were seen fleeing for their lives from the site.
“Unfortunately, there are casualties,” Arian said as the assault unfolded, without elaborating.
Ahmad Samim, a university student, told journalists he saw militants armed with pistols and Kalashnikov assault rifles firing at the school, the country’s oldest with some 17,000 students. He said the attack happened at the university’s eastern side where its law and journalism faculty teach.
Afghan media reported a book exhibition was being held at the university and attended by a number of dignitaries at the time of the shooting.
No group immediately took responsibility for the ongoing attack though the Taliban issued a statement saying they were not involved. However, suspicion immediately fell on the Islamic State group.
Last month, the Islamic State group sent a suicide bomber into an education centre in the capital’s Shiite dominated neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi, killing 24 students and injuring more than 100. The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan has declared war on Afghanistan’s minority Shiite Muslims and have staged dozens of attacks since emerging in 2014.
Schools have been targeted for attacks in the past as well. Last year, a bomb outside of the Kabul University campus’ gates killed eight people. In 2016, gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13.
Meanwhile Monday, a vehicle hit a roadside mine in the country’s southern Helmand province, killing at least seven civilians, most of them women and children, provincial governor spokesman Omer Zwak said.
