At least one student died and 14 other people were hurt Wednesday after a
"complex" gun and bomb attack at American University of Afghanistan in
western Kabul, police and the head of the city's hospitals reported, as
the military worked for hours to free students and staff inside.
Security forces were conducting a clearing operation to track down the
"terrorists" and slowly rescue teachers and hundreds of students who
huddled in classrooms and safe rooms, police spokesman Sediq Sediqqi
said. Sediqqi said it was not clear if there were one or two attackers.
A car bomb had exploded outside a school for the blind next door
before at least one attacker fired at the university campus from that
school building, a police officer at the scene told The New York Times.
The U.S. Embassy was working to account for all of
its personnel, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told
reporters. She said the State Department condemned the attack.
The U.S. military was assisting Afghan forces who responded to the
attack, U.S. Army Colonel Michael T. Lawhorn told Fox News. "These
advisors are not taking a combat role, but advising their Afghan
counterparts."
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the
attack. The Taliban have been fighting to overthrow the Kabul government
for 15 years, and regard foreign civilians as legitimate targets.
Associated Press photographer Massoud Hossaini said
he was in a classroom with 15 students when he heard an explosion on the
southern flank of the campus. "I went to the window to see what was
going on, and I saw a person in normal clothes outside. He shot at me
and shattered the glass," Hossaini said, adding that he fell on the
glass and cut his hands. He also tweeted: "Help we are stuck inside AUAF
and shooting flollowed by Explo this maybe my last tweets"
The students then barricaded themselves into the
classroom, pushing chairs and desks against the door, and staying on the
floor. Hossaini and about nine students managed to escape from the
campus through a northern emergency gate. "As we were running I saw
someone lying on the ground face down, they looked like they had been
shot in the back," he said.
Witnesses and a U.S.-based school administrator told
Fox News the gunfire had stopped but security teams were still sweeping
the area. Ambulances raced victims to a nearby hospital. Local media
reported fires continuted to burn on campus.
The university's president, Mark English, tells The Associated Press, "we are trying to assess the situation."
Student Ahmad Mukhtar told the BBC he climbed a 20-foot wall to escape the attack. Another student told AFP over the phone, "We are stuck inside and very afraid."
Hossaini and students with him took refuge in a house near the campus.
The university was established in 2006 to offer
liberal arts courses modeled on the U.S. system. It claims as many as
1,700 students are enrolled there, 40 percent of whom are women.
Two of its professors were kidnapped at gunpoint in
Kabul on August 7. The professors were identified as Kevin King, an
American, and Timothy Weeks from Australia. Men in military uniforms
reportedly abducted them as they traveled between the campus and their
home in Kabul. The professors' whereabouts are unclear.
(FOX)
