At least 19 people died and 50 others were injured Tuesday in an attack on a military hospital in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, said a head of the Ministry of Health.
“Nineteen bodies and around 50 wounded people were taken to hospitals in Kabul,” this source told the AFP agency. Previously, a Taliban official had reported two explosions in the hospital and a worker claimed to have heard gunshots.
The explosion occurred at one of the gates of the Sardar Mohammad Dawood Khan military hospital, Interior Ministry spokesman Saeed Khosty tweeted. Special forces rushed to the scene.
image of the hospital interior after the attack on a Kabul hospital. Photo: REUTER
Later on Tuesday, Sayed Abdullah Ahmadi, the director of a nearby hospital named Wazir Akbar Khan, said his center had received three bodies and seven people who had been injured in the explosion.
Another nine wounded were taken to the Afghanistan Emergency Hospital.
So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. In recent weeks, the militant group Islamic State has carried out a series of bombings and shootings. The Islamic State is a rival to the Taliban, and has stepped up its attacks since they took control of Afghanistan in a swift military campaign in August.
A witness who is inside the facilities of the health center, and who requested anonymity, assured the EFE agency that “there were attackers inside the hospital” and that “the shooting and the clashes continue.”
A column of smoke visible at the site of the attack in Kabul. Photo: REUTER
“The smell of explosives spreads throughout the hospital. At least two more explosions occurred inside the hospital on the fourth and fifth floors of the hospital,” said the source, adding that, in addition, at the time of the attack, there were between 300 and 400 people inside these medical facilities.
“The Taliban have arrived at the hospital, but they are not professional enough to deal with the attack,” he said.
A hospital doctor, Azhar Khalid Akrami, confirmed from his Facebook account that the attackers are inside the premises from the health center after there had been “an explosion and an attack” nearby.
Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan Hospital is Kabul’s main military hospital, located just a few meters from the US Embassy and the Afghan Ministry of Health.
This center suffered an attack in March 2017 that was claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS), which caused more than thirty deaths and dozens of injuries, after a suicide bomber immolated himself in the hospital entrance.
The suicide bomber then opened the way for three other insurgents who stormed the compound and fired “indiscriminately” until the last of them was killed by Afghan troops six and a half hours after the start of the attack.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for attacks in at least eight of the 34 Afghan provinces since the Taliban seized power on August 15.
The largest attack by the jihadist group in recent months, with about 170 deaths, took place on August 26 at the Kabul airport, when thousands of Afghans desperately tried to flee the country on one of the repatriation flights.
In addition, an ISIS suicide attack on a Shiite mosque left at least 80 dead and about 100 wounded in Kunduz on October 8, and another similar attack a week later in southern Kandahar left another 60 dead.
With information from the EFE, AP and AFP agencies
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