At least 19 people were killed when ISIS fighters attacked a 400-bed hospital in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday, according to Taliban government sources.
The Afghan authorities quickly accused the Afghan wing of the organization of being behind the attack on the military hospital in Kabul on Tuesday. The extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement that evening.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that ISIS fighters wanted to attack civilians, doctors, and patients in the hospital.
The attack began when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb near the entrance to the 400-bed military hospital. Then armed men attacked the hospital area.
Norway condemns
The Taliban government has not announced any official death toll since the attack, and international news agencies have cited different numbers from different sources.
A source in the Ministry of Health, who was not named, told AFP that “19 dead and about 50 wounded were taken to a Kabul hospital.”
A source in the security services told Reuters news agency that at least 25 people had been killed.
– Norway condemns attacks targeting hospitals and medical personnel. Our condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives today in the attack on Sardar Muhammad Dawood Khan Hospital in Kabul, according to the Foreign Ministry in Kabul. statment.
Several explosions
Mujahid claims that Taliban forces stopped the attack after 15 minutes, and that five ISIS fighters were killed inside the hospital. According to the spokesman, no one was killed inside the hospital, but three women, a child and three Taliban fighters were killed when the first bomb exploded. Eyewitnesses said they heard several explosions, the DPA news agency wrote.
In its statement via social media, the Afghan branch of ISIS IS-K said that five ISIS fighters participated in coordinated attacks on the hospital. He claimed that one of them detonated an explosive belt at the entrance to the hospital, before the others stormed the area and opened fire.
Witnesses say
Television footage showed black smoke rising from the hospital after the attack, and AFP reporters saw Taliban fighters on their way to the area in several armored vehicles and pickup trucks. Roads in the area were closed and Taliban fighters searched pedestrians.
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– I’m in the hospital and I heard a loud explosion from the first barrier. He asks us to go to the safe rooms. A doctor at the hospital told AFP that I also heard shooting.
He said he heard gunshots inside the hospital and that he believed the attackers were moving from room to room, as they had done in an earlier attack.
The hospital is located near the city center, not far from many western embassies.
It is the death of the Taliban
The Taliban seized power in Kabul in mid-August and promised stable conditions after taking control of most of the country in the previous months. Since then, they and many Shiite mosques have been subjected to a number of attacks by the extremist Islamic group ISIS.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack when the same hospital was attacked in 2017. Gunmen dressed as doctors killed 30 people.
During the hour they were allowed to advance, they went from room to room to kill, first with firearms, then with a knife when they ran out of ammunition.
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