Sixteen people were killed after militants stormed the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, officials said yesterday, in a nearly 10-hour raid that prompted anguished pleas for help from trapped students, AFP reports.  Explosions and gunfire rocked the campus after the attack began Wednesday evening, just weeks after two university professors -- an American and an Australian -- were kidnapped at gunpoint near the school. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the assault, but it occurred as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide summer offensive against the Western-backed government.
Meanwhile, the Afghan presidential office said the attack was "orchestrated" from Pakistan, Afghanistan's longtime regional nemesis often accused of harbouring the Taliban. President Ashraf Ghani also telephoned Army Chief General Raheel Sharif and demanded “serious measures against the terrorists”.
A meeting of Afghanistan’s National Security Council was convened on Thursday, during which Ghani reportedly called Gen Raheel and asked him “for serious and practical measures against the terrorists who organised the attack”, read a statement issued by the office of Afghan president.
Afghan authorities shared three mobile numbers with Pakistan, saying these numbers were in allegedly in contact with the assailants from inside Pakistan during the university attack, said a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations.
“Sixteen people, including eight students, were killed and 53 others were wounded,” health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh told AFP. “Some of the wounded are in critical condition.”
The interior ministry said the fatalities included policemen, a university guard and a guard from the neighbouring vocational school for the visually impaired.
Hundreds of trapped students were rescued during the overnight operation, many of whom tweeted desperate messages for help. Some used classroom furniture to barricade the doors while others made a mad scramble to escape through windows from high floors.
The attack began with a suicide car bombing at a university gate, which paved the way for two attackers to storm the compound at dusk, when the elite private university is usually packed with students. “Students were pushing each other out of the classroom window,” Farzana, a young student who was grievously hurt while escaping, told AFP from her hospital bed. “I was reluctant to jump but a fellow student pushed me and I fell down. The rest I don’t remember.”
Authorities refused to confirm whether any hostages had been taken. NATO military advisers helped Afghan forces to respond to the attack, a US official said, without specifying how many troops were involved.
At dawn, after the assault had ended, a few women students, some of them terrified and weeping, were escorted out of the campus by policemen.