KABUL: The death toll from a complex assault by gunmen on government buildings, in a residential area of Kabul, has risen to 43, officials said on Tuesday.
More than 25 other people were wounded in the attack which began late on Monday afternoon and lasted until just before dawn on Tuesday. More than 350 civilian employees were trapped inside the buildings for a long duration of the assault.
Government forces had to act in a cautious manner and move slowly as a majority of those trapped were in offices located in densely-populated areas, Najb Danesh, an Interior Ministry spokesman told reporters.
Meanwhile, Waheed Majroh, a public health ministry spokesman, said that ambulances were able to resume operations on Tuesday to evacuate those impacted in the attack, even as authorities feared that the death toll would rise. “We have 43 evacuated so far and think the number is likely to rise,” Majroh told Arab News.
A majority of the victims were government officials who were trapped in the attack, he said, adding that at least one woman was also among those killed.
Government forces had also suffered casualties, officials said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack which began just before state employees were heading home after a day of work.
The Taliban, the main insurgent group, said it was not behind the strike.
However, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the country’s Chief Executive accused the Taliban of being responsible for the attack. “The Taliban crime syndicate must know that with every attack they carry out against our people our resolve is further strengthened to eliminate them. Their conduct is a disgrace to the very notion of peace,” he said in a tweet.
It began with a car bomb on a street near the state’s civilian buildings in a busy part of the city which is located some two miles away from the presidential palace. A group of assailants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and explosives entered the buildings soon after, officials said, adding that government troops were scouring the buildings to ensure no attacker was left hidden.
Roads leading to the site of the attack remained closed even after sunrise on Tuesday and a couple of hours after the attack had ended, residents said.
“We could not sleep at all last night. There were explosions and burst of bullets. Glasses of some of the windows in our neighborhood have broken,” Waheed Rafi, a resident living nearby, told Arab News.
The previous attack in Kabul – claimed by Taliban insurgents — took place in late November when a foreign security firm was impacted in a raid. Both Taliban insurgents and affiliates of Daesh have used same tactics of conducting commando-style raids against government targets in recent years.
Taliban delegates and US diplomats held a series of meetings in Abu Dhabi, UAE last week to explore ways to end the Afghan war which began with the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.
The Taliban insisted that the withdrawal of foreign troops was the group’s main condition and the first step toward ending the war. The assault came just days after the US media quoted President Donald Trump as saying that he was considering withdrawing 14,000 US troops from Afghanistan.
The sudden move took the Afghan government by surprise with some analysts saying that it could undermine peace talks with the insurgents by emboldening them further with the pullout plan.
“Although, Trump has proven to be a very volatile or unpredictable person, his plan will affect the morale of our troops and may aid the Taliban because it is coming at a crucial time with elections scheduled for April and the security situation being bad in recent months,” Atiqullah Amarkhail, a retired general, told Arab News.
Death toll from brazen Kabul attack jumps to 43
Death toll from brazen Kabul attack jumps to 43
- Assault follows US president’s plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan
- Both the Taliban and Daesh fighters have recently resorted to commando-style raids on government installations
Explosions and sounds of aircraft heard in Kabul, hours after Afghanistan attacks Pakistan
KABUL, Afghanistan: At least three explosions and the sound of aircraft reverberated in Kabul early Friday, hours after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in the latest escalation of violence between the volatile neighbors.
There was no immediate information on the exact location of the explosions in the Afghan capital, or of any potential casualties.
Afghanistan said its military launched its attack across the border into Pakistan late Thursday to retaliate for Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday, and claimed to have captured more than a dozen Pakistani army posts.
Pakistan’s government, which had described last Sunday’s airstrikes as an attack on militants harbored in the area, confirmed clashes were taking place Thursday along the border but dismissed claims that army posts had been captured. It called Afghanistan’s attack unprovoked.
“In response to the repeated rebellions and insurrections of the Pakistani military, large-scale offensive operations were launched against Pakistani military bases and military installations along the Durand Line,” Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on X Thursday night. Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said the retaliatory attacks were occurring along the border in five provinces.
The two countries’ 2,611-kilometer long border is known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan has not formally recognized.
The two sides reported widely differing casualty figures.
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat posted on X that “up to 55” Pakistani soldiers had been killed, with the bodies of 23 taken into Afghanistan, while an undisclosed number of soldiers had been captured.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar disputed the claim, saying two Pakistani soldiers had been killed and three others wounded. He said 36 Afghan fighters had been reported killed. In a post on X, he said Pakistan was giving a “strong and effective response” to what he called unprovoked firing from Afghanistan, and would continue to do so.
Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesman for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied that any Pakistani soldiers had been captured.
Fighting also broke out in a separate part of the border, with both sides reporting exchanges of fire in the Torkham border area.
Afghan authorities were evacuating a refugee camp near the Torkham border crossing after several refugees were wounded, said Qureshi Badlon, head of Torkham’s Information and Public Awareness Board. On the Pakistani side of the border, local police said residents were also evacuating to safer areas, while some Afghan refugees who had been waiting to cross back into Afghanistan were also moved to secure locations. Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown on migrants in Oct. 2023 and has expelled hundreds of thousands of people.
Pakistani police said mortars fired from Afghanistan had landed in nearby villages, but there were no reports of civilian casualties.
“Pakistan will take all necessary measures to ensure its territorial integrity and the safety and security of its citizens,” Pakistan’s Information Ministry said in a post on X.
Afghanistan’s military released video footage of military vehicles moving at night, and the sound of heavy gunfire. The video could not be independently verified.
Tension has been high between the two neighbors for months, with deadly border clashes in October killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, at the time, conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.
A Qatari-mediated ceasefire between the two countries has largely held, but the two sides have still occasionally traded fire across the border. Several rounds of peace talks in November failed to produce a formal agreement.
On Sunday, Pakistan’s military carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan, saying it had killed at least 70 militants.
Afghanistan rejected the claim, saying dozens of civilians had been killed, including women and children. The Defense Ministry said “various civilian areas” in eastern Afghanistan had been hit, including a religious madrassa and several homes. The ministry said the strikes were a violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and sovereignty.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan in recent years, much of which Pakistan blames on the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.
