Mohammad Saleem Rasouly, the head of Kabul’s hospitals, has confirmed one student has died and at least 14 have been wounded in an ongoing attack on the American University of…
ADVERTISEMENTMohammad Saleem Rasouly, the head of Kabul’s hospitals, has confirmed one student has died and at least 14 have been wounded in an ongoing attack on the American University of Afghanistan.
An Afghan Interior Ministry official and several on campus have described a gun attack. Explosions and further bursts of gunfire have also been reported.
Police claim at least a hundred students have so far been able to escape. But many people are said to be barricaded inside, among them foreign professors and hundreds of students.
Police say the attack is “complex.” An officer on the scene is quoted as saying a car bomb was detonated in front of a nearby school for the blind. Attackers reportedly entered that building and began firing at the American University from there.
A photographer for The Associated Press who was attending a class on campus at the time told the agency the first explosion he heard was on the southern flank of the university site.
Massoud Hossaini said he looked out of the classroom window where he saw a person in plain clothes who shot at him, shattering the glass.
Hossaini and his 15 fellow students were later able to escape.
Security forces cordoned off the area shortly after the attack began.
It is the second time this month that the university or its staff have been targeted.
Two teachers, an American and an Australian, remain missing after being abducted at gunpoint from a road nearby on August 7th.