Dozens Killed As Militants Attack Afghan Hospital, Funeral
Dozens Killed As Militants Attack Afghan Hospital, Funeral RFE
Afghanistan was hit by more deadly violence on May 12 as gunmen stormed a Kabul maternity hospital and a suicide bomber killed and wounded dozens of people at a funeral in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
Three gunmen attacked the state-run hospital in western Kabul’s mostly Shi’ite neighborhood of Dasht-e Barchi, setting off an hours-long gunbattle with Afghan security forces.
Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said 14 people were killed in the attack, including two newborn babies, and 15 others were wounded.
Security forces eventually killed all three attackers, allowing the rescue of 80 women and infants from the hospital.
A witness, Jawad Amiri, told RFE/RL that one of the attackers “was wearing a military uniform and the other two were dressed as doctors.”
“They came to the main entrance and opened fire at people everywhere around. They killed many innocent people,” he added.
Afghan officials say work at the hospital was supported by the Nobel Prize-winning international nongovernmental charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Photos shared by the ministry show Afghan soldiers carrying newborn babies from the 100-bed hospital while mothers who’d recently given birth follow close behind.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Both the Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) extremist group are active in Kabul and its surroundings. Both also frequently target Afghan security forces and civilians.
But in a message sent to RFE/RL on May 12, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied that the militant group was involved in the hospital attack.
IS has claimed responsibility for numerous other attacks against Shi’ite Muslims in the western part of Kabul.
Meanwhile, in the Khewa district of Nangarhar Province, the provincial governor’s spokesman Attahullah Khogyani told RFE/RL that 24 people were killed and more than 68 injured by a suicide bomber who attacked a funeral on May 12.
Also on May 12, a bomb planted in a cart at a market in the southeastern province of Khost killed a child and wounded 10 people. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either incident.
IS has claimed responsibility for a spate of violence in Kabul on May 11 that wounded a child and three adult civilians.
Those attacks included three roadside bombs as well as a fourth bomb placed under a garbage can in the northern part of the Afghan capital.
Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said on May 11 that Afghan security forces arrested the Islamic State group’s regional leader for South Asia, Abu Omar Khorasani, during an operation on the northern side of the Afghan capital.