19 dead in IS suicide attack on Kabul military hospital

KABUL - At least 19 people were killed and 50 more wounded in an attack on a military hospital in Kabul on Tuesday, the latest atrocity to rock Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power.

The Taliban's rivals, the Islamic State group, claimed responsibility for the gun and bomb assault in the centre of the capital.

Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) said in a statement on its Telegram channels that "five Islamic State group fighters carried out simultaneous coordinated attacks" on the sprawling site.

"The IS insurgents wanted to target civilians, doctors and patients in the hospital," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, claiming that Taliban forces had repulsed the attack within 15 minutes.

As part of the response, he said, Taliban "special forces" were dropped onto the roof of the hospital from one of the helicopters that the group seized from Afghanistan's former US-backed government.

The attack got under way when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the facility's entrance. Gunmen then broke into the hospital grounds, firing their weapons.

"Nineteen dead bodies and about 50 wounded people have been taken to hospitals in Kabul," a health ministry official who asked not to be named told AFP.

Mujahid played down the death toll, but confirmed that two Taliban fighters, two women and a child had been killed outside the hospital.

One woman who had been trapped in the hospital when the attack began told AFP how she and her friend "felt we were going to die, that our lives were ending".

"There was a blast at the door," Rowana Dawari, a poet and lecturer, told AFP.

"Daesh came and started firing, we were stuck. We heard firing, glass breaking. We locked ourselves in a bathroom," she said, referring to IS by its local name.

"Later, Taliban came and we saw they were with our doctors, so we knew it was OK."

Amanudhin, a 28-year-old cleaner at the hospital, pushed an elderly, frail and partially sighted patient, Mariam, away from the scene in a wheelchair.

"The explosion happened and after a while people started screaming 'Daesh is here'," he told AFP. "We heard a lot of firing.

"We were in the 7th floor and locked ourselves in a room. There were injured people everywhere. Broken glass."

They hid until Taliban fighters came to rescue them: "They were special forces, professionals, they broke the door and got inside."

AFP