Alleged Islamic State militants attack hospital, “they came to kill mothers”: group of doctors

KABUL, Afghanistan – Gunmen who stormed a hospital in the Afghan capital this week had come to “kill mothers” in the maternity ward, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said.

At least 24 people died, including newborns, mothers and nurses, when three armed men raided the hospital’s maternity ward in Kabul on Tuesday in an attack that sparked international outrage.

The United States later said that the deadly assault was carried out by the Islamic State group.

“What I saw in the maternity hospital shows that it was a systematic shooting of mothers,” said Frederic Bonnot, chief of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Afghanistan on Thursday, who visited the facilities a day after the attack.

“They went through the maternity rooms, shot women in their beds. It was methodical.

“Walls sprayed with bullets, blood on the floors of the rooms, burned vehicles and blown-up windows,” he said in a statement.

MSF, which runs the maternity ward, said 26 mothers were being treated at the Barchi National Hospital in western Kabul at the time of the attack.

Eleven were killed, including three in the delivery room with their newborn babies, while five others were injured.

Ten others found refuge in safe rooms.

The assailants who entered the facility through the front door moved directly into the maternity ward, MSF said.

When the attack began, gunshots and explosions were heard from the safe room where several had taken refuge, Bonnot said.

“They came to kill the mothers,” he said.

“This country is sadly used to seeing horrible events. But what happened on Tuesday is beyond words.”

Authorities said there were three attackers who were eventually killed in a lengthy cleanup operation.

Strongly armed security forces were seen carrying babies, at least one wrapped in a blood-soaked blanket.

IS has not claimed the attack, but the United States Special Representative in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said it was carried out by the Islamic State in Khorasan, the Afghan branch of IS.

The Islamic State group “opposes a peace agreement between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban, and seeks to encourage sectarian warfare like in Iraq and Syria,” Khalilzad wrote on Twitter.

The Taliban have denied any involvement in the attack.

In another attack Tuesday in the east of the country, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral, killing at least 32 people, and then IS claimed responsibility.