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KABUL: At least 22 people were killed when attackers stormed one of Afghanistan’s major universities on Monday (Nov. 2), detonated a suicide bomb and sprayed classrooms with bullets in a blatant, hours-long assault claimed by the Islamic State group.
The attack on Kabul University, which came as violence escalated in Afghanistan, marked the second time in less than two weeks that an educational institution in the capital was attacked by IS extremists.
Survivors described horrific scenes after a suicide bomber attacked the campus around 11 a.m.
Then two gunmen opened fire, authorities said, causing hundreds of students to flee and climb the perimeter walls.
Fraidoon Ahmadi, a 23-year-old student, told AFP that he was in a university class when the shooting broke out.
“We were very scared and we thought it might be the last day of our lives … boys and girls were screaming, praying and asking for help,” said Ahmadi.
He said he and other students were besieged for more than two hours before being rescued.
Images posted online showed what appeared to be the bodies of murdered students lying next to desks and chairs.
“They opened fire … all my classmates were lying in blood, dead or wounded,” one student told a local television channel, adding that he escaped by going out a window.
IS said that two of its fighters carried out the attack late in the morning.
“Two Islamic State fighters managed to attack a rally organized by the Afghan government at Kabul University for the graduation of judges and researchers after completing a course at the university,” said the group’s propaganda arm, Amaq.
“The two combatants targeted the graduates with automatic weapons … then they clashed with the security forces.”
The Public Health Ministry said at least 22 people died and 22 more were injured. Authorities said most of the victims were students.
GHANI PROMISES VENGEANCE
It was not immediately clear how the attackers got their weapons into the university, which has security checks.
Authorities said an investigation was underway.
The Afghan security forces, supported by US troops, took several hours to clear the campus and declare the end of the attack.
The Taliban said they were not involved, but Vice President Amrullah Saleh blamed the insurgent group and its supporters in Pakistan, even as he acknowledged an intelligence failure.
“We will correct our intelligence failures. But the Taliban, their like-minded satanic allies next door, will never be able to wash their conscience from this stinking and unjustifiable attack on Kbul Uni,” Saleh wrote on Twitter.
The Afghan authorities routinely accuse Islamabad of backing the Taliban, charges that Pakistan denies.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry condemned Monday’s attack, which it said was a “despicable” assault on a seat of knowledge.
At the United Nations, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he “strongly condemns the gruesome attack” on the university.
“This gruesome attack, the second in 10 days against a school in Kabul, is also an attack on the human right to education,” Guterres said in a statement.
In a statement, President Ashraf Ghani vowed to “take revenge for this senseless attack and for any drop of blood from innocent students spilled today.”
He added that the attack “will not go unanswered, we will retaliate.”
Authorities declared Tuesday a day of national mourning.
EMERGING VIOLENCE
Several educational centers have been attacked over the years by extremist groups such as the Islamic State.
Last week, at least 24 people, mostly students, were killed in a suicide attack at an educational center in western Kabul that was claimed by IS.
In 2018, a suicide bomber killed dozens of people, many of them teenagers, in front of Kabul University in an attack also claimed by IS.
NATO in Afghanistan condemned the latest massacre.
“Afghan children and youth need to feel safe going to school. #NATO strongly supports all efforts to stop violence,” NATO envoy Stefano Pontecorvo said on Twitter.
Violence has increased in recent weeks despite ongoing peace talks between the Taliban and the government that began in Qatar in September.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy who negotiated a separate agreement with the Taliban in February, visited Islamabad on Monday where he met with the chief of Pakistan’s army to discuss a “way forward for a lasting peace in Afghanistan,” they said. officials.
So far, the talks have made little tangible progress.
