Kabul military hospital attack leaves 49 dead, up to 90 wounded, gunmen in disguise

RFE/RL
Thu, 09 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC

© NBC News

Afghan National Army soldiers land on the roof of the Kabul military hospital under attack.

Afghan officials say the death toll in an attack on a military hospital in Kabul has risen to 49.

Salim Rassouli, director of Kabul hospitals, said on March 9 that 49 people were killed in the attack on the Sardar Mohammad Khan military hospital on March 8, and at least 63 wounded. The extremist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack in which gunmen dressed as health workers shot doctors, patients, and visitors at the 400-bed hospital.

Health Ministry spokesman Qamaruddin Sediqi confirmed the death toll of 49 but put the number of people wounded at 76. Other officials said 90 people were wounded.

Afghanistan's largest military hospital, Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan is located close to the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy. It took Afghan special forces several hours to neutralize the attackers.

The number of gunmen killed in the attack was also unclear. Afghan officials had spoken of four armed men. However, IS overnight published a photo of the alleged fighters including their names, showing five men. In a statement via its affiliated news agency Amaq, the militant group claimed that 400 people were killed or wounded.

Comment: The raid exemplifies how a nation's warring factions, government forces, and radical terrorists have repeatedly targeted medical facilities at the expense of the human need for life-saving healthcare and not just in Afghanistan. Israeli bombings of Palestinian hospitals come readily to mind, as well as the coalition bombings in Syria.

More Details:

Medical staff hunkered down in the hospital wards posted desperate messages for help on social media, with television footage showing some of them trapped on the ledge of a top-floor window.

Hospital administrators told AFP three gunmen wearing white laboratory coats began spraying bullets after a suicide bomber on foot blew himself up at the backdoor entrance, sparking chaos inside the 400-bed facility.

"I saw one of the attackers, armed with an AK-47 and dressed as a doctor, shooting at patients and guards on the third floor," hospital nurse Abdul Qadeer told AFP.

"They shot my friend but I managed to flee... I had to jump over the barbed wire to escape."

At least two other loud explosions -- including what the defence ministry called a car bomb in the hospital's parking lot -- were heard as Afghan special forces launched a clearance operation that lasted around six hours.

The attackers were gunned down after special forces landed on the roof of the hospital in a military helicopter.

The Taliban said they were not behind the raid and are known to distance itself from attacks on medical facilities or those that result in high civilian casualties.