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.