Militants seize govt hostages in Kabul raid
Print Edition
Militants detonated a car bomb before storming a Kabul government compound in an ongoing attack yesterday, in the latest violence to rock the Afghan capital.
A number of gunmen raided the compound where the Ministry of Public Works and other offices are located, interior ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.
Afghan security forces have killed two of the attackers and freed 200 employees trapped inside one of the buildings occupied by the militants, Rahimi said. 鈥淭here are still some hostages with the enemy and a clearance operation is ongoing,鈥 he said late last night.
At least four people have been wounded, said health ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh. One had broken several bones after jumping from the third floor of a building to escape the attackers, a witness at a hospital said. Another two were wounded by broken glass.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the raid that began with a bomb-laden vehicle exploding at the entrance. That was followed by a second blast, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said, though he did not specify the nature of it.
Plumes of black smoke could be seen rising from the compound, with at least two military helicopters circling above. Journalists near the scene reported hearing numerous explosions in the hours after the attack began.
Ashraf, a witness who works at the Ministry of Public Works and who goes by one name, said militants inside the compound were exchanging gunfire with security forces.
鈥淭hey are also firing at the NDS facility nearby,鈥 he said after escaping the compound, referring to the Afghan spy agency, the National Directorate of Security.
Public works ministry spokesman Mehdi Rohani said he and his colleagues were fleeing to a safe room.
鈥淎 car bomb detonated at the entrance of the ministry鈥檚 parking lot,鈥 he said by mobile phone as he ran from the scene.
The attack caps a tumultuous few days for Afghanistan after an American official said late last week that US President Donald Trump had decided to pull out 鈥渞oughly half鈥 of the 14,000 US forces in the country.
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