Kurzweil
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- May 25, 2011
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Officials said Thursday that an attack on the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul has ended with 13 people dead, including seven students and three assailants.
The dead also included two police officers and a university security guard, and more than 30 people were wounded, said Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Interior.
One of the assailants detonated a car bomb at the entrance to the U.S.-funded university in western Kabul about 7 p.m. Wednesday, during evening classes, Sediqqi said.
Two other attackers then stormed the campus, shooting dead seven students who were outside before reaching the third story of the main university building, Sediqqi said. The attackers took up positions there and began battling security forces, including members of a rapid-response police force who arrived soon after the attack began.
“Our two police were killed when the assailants threw hand grenades at them,” Sediqqi said.
Wahidullah Majrooh, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, said hospitals had received 12 bodies and 35 injury victims.
Hundreds of students were on campus at the time, some of whom barricaded their classrooms or fled via emergency exits. Kabul Police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said about 700 students were rescued, the Associated Press reported.
Rahimi said one foreign teacher had been wounded. University officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The American University of Afghanistan is one of the country’s best-known learning institutions and a symbol of U.S. largess, and has long been in the cross-hairs of the Taliban and other militant groups
Established in 2006 with U.S. government funds, the university teaches an American-style liberal arts curriculum. More than 1,000 male and female students are enrolled.
Dejan Panic, program director at Kabul’s emergency hospital, said 18 people wounded in the attack, including five women, had been admitted, the AP reported. He said three were seriously injured, probably from automatic gunfire.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said, “An attack on a university is an attack on the future of Afghanistan.”
Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said a “small number” of U.S. military advisors were assisting Afghan forces responding to the attack.
Two weeks ago, two university staff members, an American and an Australian, were kidnapped from their car by gunmen. Their whereabouts remains unknown.
Source: Los Angels Times
The dead also included two police officers and a university security guard, and more than 30 people were wounded, said Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Interior.
One of the assailants detonated a car bomb at the entrance to the U.S.-funded university in western Kabul about 7 p.m. Wednesday, during evening classes, Sediqqi said.
Two other attackers then stormed the campus, shooting dead seven students who were outside before reaching the third story of the main university building, Sediqqi said. The attackers took up positions there and began battling security forces, including members of a rapid-response police force who arrived soon after the attack began.
“Our two police were killed when the assailants threw hand grenades at them,” Sediqqi said.
Wahidullah Majrooh, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, said hospitals had received 12 bodies and 35 injury victims.
Hundreds of students were on campus at the time, some of whom barricaded their classrooms or fled via emergency exits. Kabul Police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said about 700 students were rescued, the Associated Press reported.
Rahimi said one foreign teacher had been wounded. University officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The American University of Afghanistan is one of the country’s best-known learning institutions and a symbol of U.S. largess, and has long been in the cross-hairs of the Taliban and other militant groups
Established in 2006 with U.S. government funds, the university teaches an American-style liberal arts curriculum. More than 1,000 male and female students are enrolled.
Dejan Panic, program director at Kabul’s emergency hospital, said 18 people wounded in the attack, including five women, had been admitted, the AP reported. He said three were seriously injured, probably from automatic gunfire.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said, “An attack on a university is an attack on the future of Afghanistan.”
Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said a “small number” of U.S. military advisors were assisting Afghan forces responding to the attack.
Two weeks ago, two university staff members, an American and an Australian, were kidnapped from their car by gunmen. Their whereabouts remains unknown.
Source: Los Angels Times
