Afghanistan: Deadly blasts, gunfire hit Kabul military hospital

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Afghanistan: Deadly blasts, gunfire hit Kabul military hospital

7:50 CAT | 02 Nov 2021

Wounded victims of the blasts being shifted to an emergency hospital [EPA]

At least 19 people killed and dozens of others wounded in explosions and gunfire at Afghanistan’s largest military hospital, interior ministry sources say.

At least 19 people were killed and 43 others were wounded in an attack on Afghanistan’s biggest military hospital in the capital Kabul, interior ministry sources told Al Jazeera.

Two explosions hit the entrance of the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan military hospital on Tuesday, followed immediately by heavy gunfire, officials said.

Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said four attackers were killed by Taliban security forces and a fifth was arrested.

A Taliban official later said a suicide bomber and gunmen were behind an attack.

“The attack was initiated by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle who blew himself up at the entrance of the hospital,” said the official on condition on anonymity, adding the assailants had all been killed.

Photographs shared by residents showed a plume of smoke after the blasts in the former diplomatic zone in the Wazir Akbar Khan area in central Kabul.

A health worker at the hospital, who managed to escape the site, said he heard a large explosion followed by a couple of minutes of gunfire. About 10 minutes later, there was a second, larger explosion, he said.

ISIL affiliate

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the official Bakhtar News Agency quoted witnesses saying a number of fighters from an ISIL (ISIS) affiliate entered the hospital and clashed with security forces. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the report.

Ministry of Interior Affairs sources told Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity that at least 19 people were killed and 43 others were wounded, but there was no officially confirmed death toll.

The blasts added to a growing list of attacks and killings since the Taliban completed its victory over the previous Western-backed government in August, undermining its claim to have restored security to Afghanistan after decades of war.

ISIL affiliate Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), which has carried out a series of attacks on mosques and other targets since the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul in August, mounted a complex attack on the 400-bed hospital in 2017, killing more than 30 people.

Source: Al Jazeera