Eight people were killed when Taliban suicide bombers stormed the residence of an Afghan lawmaker in the capital, Kabul, officials said after the attackers were gunned down early yesterday following a nearly 10-hour siege.
Helmand Member of Parliament Mir Wali survived the assault with injuries, but two of his grandsons and bodyguards were among those killed in the attack, which began on Wednesday evening following a recent lull in violence in Kabul.
The Taliban said in a statement that their suicide bombers raided the house to disrupt an “important gathering of officials” to address the deteriorating security situation in the lawmaker’s southern, opium-rich province.
Photo: Reuters
Afghan “President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemns the attack on the residence of Helmand MP Mir Wali, which killed two members of his family, a number of his bodyguards and the son of another MP from Uruzgan, Obaidullah Barakzai,” the presidential palace said in a statement.
“President Ghani termed the attack as an unforgivable crime. Attacking the residence of national personalities cannot be justified in any religion and is against Islamic values,” the statement said.
In all eight civilians and officials were killed, said Fraidoon Obaidi, chief of the Kabul Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Department.
Mir Wali was hospitalized after he jumped from his roof to escape the attack, he added.
Sporadic gunfire and explosions were heard from the house early yesterday as Afghan forces cordoned off the property to launch a clearance operation.
“The coordinated attack was carried out by three suicide bombers. They were gunned down by Afghan forces,” Obaidi told reporters.
Afghan police and security officials combed through the wreckage of the house.
Broken glass and spent bullet cartridges lay on the bloodstained ground of the heavily fortified house in the district of Khushal Khan.
Police special forces units sealed off the house following the attack.
“It was a really terrifying situation here in the night,” said neighbor Matihullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name.
“There were explosions and firing. It was really horrible and we couldn’t sleep whole the night,” he said.
The Taliban said 20 people, including senior security officials from Helmand, had been killed in the attack, but government officials put the death toll at eight.
Two Taliban gunmen had also been killed, the group said.
The Taliban said the attack targeted a meeting of security officials who had been invited to discuss Helmand, which has fallen increasingly under insurgent control over the past two years.
The brazen attack underscores the worsening security situation in Afghanistan and highlights how the Taliban is stepping up targeted attacks on high-level officials.
The group is escalating its nationwide insurgency, despite the onset of winter, when fighting usually ebbs, even as international efforts intensify to restart stalled peace talks.
Fifteen years and hundreds of billions of dollars since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the security situation in the country remains fraught and Afghan forces are struggling to contain the conflict.
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