Kabul University suffers a Daesh attack with 22 dead

The University of Kabul, recognized as Afghanistan's leading educational institution, suffered its blackest day on Monday after an insurgent attack that lasted about five hours and resulted in 22 deaths and an equal number of injuries. The terrorist group Daesh took responsibility for the attack on the university, according to the Amaq news agency, which is close to the extremists.

The attackers chose the first hour of the morning, in the shift of the highest attendance of classes, to enter the university, when, according to the spokesman of the Ministry of Higher Education Hanif Farzan explained to Efe, there were about 15,000 people on the campus, including students, professors and other employees.

The university was not considered a possible terrorist target, so security measures on campus were minimal, with only a few guards at its main entrances to search the students, which has made it easier for the insurgents to get through.

Five hours later, the attack ended with 22 dead, including the three attackers, and the same number of injured, according to Ministry of Interior spokesman Tariq Arian confirmed to Efe.

Among the dead are at least ten girls, said Arian, who celebrated the rescue of hundreds of students and university staff during the operation, while the security forces then worked to remove the explosives in the unexploded area.

Among the injured are students, professors, university administrative employees and a cab driver, Ministry of Public Health spokesman Akmal Samsour told Efe, revealing that although most of the injured "have bullet wounds," all are "stable.

Videos of the attack on social networks

At the beginning of the attack, social networks were soon filled with videos filmed by students with their cell phones, showing young men and women jumping walls and fleeing the campus, while in the background the shots were heard.

The image with the bloody face of student Milad Kohistani also went viral after he wrote a message on his Facebook account at the beginning of the attack explaining that he had witnessed some of his classmates being killed.

At the end of the operation, the police released a video showing the young man, who escaped after jumping from a classroom on the second floor, thanking the special forces for their work.
"We didn't think we would get out alive. We thought we would all die," he tells the uniformed officers.
Local media broadcast images of the university with student bodies scattered in classrooms and hallways.

The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) took responsibility for the attack on the university, according to the extremist news agency Amaq.
The main Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, who soon distanced himself from the attack, had already indirectly targeted the EI, which he referred to as "evil elements", and accused the government of supporting them and then launching propaganda against the Taliban.

Day of national mourning

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office declared Tuesday a national day of mourning to honor the victims of the attack.

"To the ruthless enemy of Afghanistan I say: we will take revenge. The sacred blood of our innocent children will not be in vain, revenge will be strong. Our troops will pursue you everywhere and eliminate you," Ghani warned in a televised speech.

Previously, the condemnations for the attack on Afghanistan's main educational institution had not been long in coming, including that of Ghani himself, or the highest authority in the Afghan peace process, Abdullah Abdullah.

"I strongly condemn today's cowardly terrorist attack on the University of Kabul. Attacking educational institutions is a heinous crime. Students have the right to study in peace (...) We will prevail over the forces of evil," Abdullah, the president of the High Council for National Reconciliation, wrote on Twitter.

Also the NATO representative for Afghanistan, Stefano Pontecorvo, condemned what happened and recalled that "this is the second attack in 10 days against an educational center in Kabul," after the attack against a study place of the Hazara Shiite minority that left 24 dead, mostly students, and 57 wounded.

Afghanistan has also experienced insurgent actions against universities in the past, such as the one that took place in October last year in the southern province of Ghazni, in which 23 students, mostly women, were injured after a bomb exploded in a classroom.

In addition, in August 2016, in the Afghan capital, an attack on the American University of Kabul, which lasted ten hours, caused 17 deaths and 45 injuries.

According to a report by the UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, published last week, during the first nine months of this year at least 2,117 civilians were killed and another 3,822 injured in the armed conflict in the country.

Today's attack comes as peace talks between representatives of the Taliban and the Afghan government have been underway in Doha since September, seeking to end nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan.