At Least Two Dead In Attack On Kabul Military Hospital

At least two people have been killed after gunmen attacked a military hospital close to the U.S. Embassy in the Afghan capital and engaged security forces inside the building, officials and witnesses say.

General Dawlat Waziri, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said an unknown number of gunmen entered the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan Hospital on March 8 after an explosion and gunfire.

The 400-bed military hospital is located near two civilian hospitals in the Wazir Akbar Khan area of Kabul.

It is also located across the road from the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy.

“The attackers are in the second and third floors of the hospital, and right now a gunbattle is under way,” Waziri said.

“So far two dead bodies and 25 injured people were carried to the neighboring Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan hospital,” Mohammad Ismail Kawusi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack during a speech on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, calling it “an attack on all Afghan people and all Afghan women.”

Full story: rferl.org

RFE/RL.

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.