Afghanistan: Gunmen Attack Army Post at Kabul Military Academy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A group of militants have attacked an army post near one of Afghanistan’s military academies in Kabul in the latest violence to strike the capital.
Ministry of defense officials said five militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles attacked the outpost near the well-defended Marshal Fahim military academy at around 5am (00.30) on Monday morning.
Five soldiers were killed and 10 wounded, officials said. Two of the attackers blew themselves up, two were killed in fighting and one was captured.
“The Afghan national army is the country’s defense force and makes sacrifices for the security and well-being of the people,” the ministry said, The Guardian reported citing news agencies.
Daesh (also known as ISIL or ISIS), which is believed to operate in the mountains of the eastern province of Nangarhar, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the militant group’s Amaq news agency.
Earlier, a local resident, Mohammad Ehsan, said he heard explosions near Marshal Fahim University and they lasted for at least an hour. Smaller blasts at less frequent intervals could still be heard, he said.
Local television showed a heavy military and security presence near the academy which is on the western outskirts of the city. Fifteen people were killed in an attack on the academy in October 2017.
The raid was the latest in a wave of attacks by insurgents in Afghanistan.
On Saturday, more than 100 people died when a suicide bomber used an ambulance to penetrate security and detonate a device in a crowded city street. The previous weekend at least 22 people died in an assault on the Intercontinental hotel in Kabul. The Taliban claimed both attacks.
On Wednesday, an assault on the offices of Save the Children in Jalalabad killed six people. The attack was claimed by Daesh.