12 killed in American University attack in Kabul
He condemned the assault as an “attack on educational institutions and public places” and said it would “strengthen our goal to eliminate the roots of terrorism”.
Islamist militant groups, mainly the Afghan Taliban and a local offshoot of Islamic State, have claimed a string of bomb attacks aimed at toppling the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani.
Naqib Ahmad Khpulwak was a full-time law faculty member at AUAF until a year ago when he took a position managing rule of law programs at the US Institute of Peace based in Kabul.
A Taliban-linked group kidnapped some 35 professors and around a dozen students from Kandahar University in 2014, when their bus was attacked in Ghazni province, 150 kilometres from Kabul. Thirty-five students and nine police were injured and about 750 students and staff were rescued. He injured his ankle making the leap.
Massoud Hossaini, a photographer for The Associated Press, was in a classroom with 15 students when he heard an explosion. It was very close.
“Extra and upgraded measures have to be taken”, said Masjidi, declining to specify what they would be.
Students who had been inside the building during the siege have said the militants themselves spoke Pashto, one of the two main languages of Afghanistan. He said they eventually managed to escape through the university’s northern emergency gate. “I insist that a loya jirga [large gathering of tribal and political leaders] needs to be held because people want it and the national unity government leaders promised that to the people”, said Rangin Dadfar Spanta, a former deputy of the National Security Council, quoted by Tolo News.
It was the second time this month that the university or its staff had been targeted.
The school was the scene of another apparent terror attack August 7, when two faculty members were abducted at gunpoint by unidentified gunman. “They are trying to stop education in Afghanistan, and our university is the only one with global standards”. About 1,700 full- and part-time students are enrolled with undergraduate classes in business, science, political science and law. “He was always very engaged in everything we did”.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military advisers helped Afghan forces to respond to the attack, a United States official said, without specifying how many troops were involved.
She said that Pakistan’s leadership has expressed its concern over increasing extremism and has stressed on the need of not providing safe havens to terrorists.