At least 2 killed as gunmen attack American university in Kabul; hundreds still trapped

KABUL, August 24

At least two people were killed and five injured after gunmen attacked the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul on Wednesday, with explosions and gunfire reported inside the campus where foreign staff and hundreds of students were trapped, ABC News said quoting police as saying.

The senior interior ministry official said elite Afghan forces had surrounded the university compound and gunfire was continuing. Early reports were that several gunmen, some wearing suicide vests, were involved, he said.

"Several gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul and there are reports of gunfire and explosions," the official said. "They are inside the compound and there are foreign professors along with hundreds of students." Ahmad Shaheer, a student at the university, said by telephone that he was trapped inside the university.

"We are stuck inside our classroom and there are bursts of gunfire," he said.

A news agency, Pajhwok Afghan, called the explosion a suicide bombing.

Afghanistan's TOLO news agency said unconfirmed reports suggested that some 100 students and staff may have escaped but scores still remain trapped inside.

A student stuck inside the university wrote on Twitter about a shooting and a possible explosion.

Help we are stuck inside AUAF and shooting flollowed by Explo this maybe my last tweets

— Massoud Hossaini (@Massoud151) August 24, 2016

No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes as the Taliban step up their summer fighting season against the Western-backed Kabul government.

 "#AUAF under attack. I along with my friends escaped and several other of my friends and professors trapped inside," Kabul-based journalist Ahmad Mukhtar tweeted.

#AUAF under attack. I along with my friends escaped and several other of of my friends and professors trapped inside.

— Ahmad Mukhtar (@AhMukhtar) August 24, 2016

The Italian-run Emergency Hospital in Kabul tweeted that at least five wounded people had been brought to the facility for treatment.

The management of the elite American University of Afghanistan, which opened in 2006 and enrols more than 1,700 students, was not immediately reachable for comment.

The private university is usually packed with students in the evening, many of them working professionals doing part-time courses at the facility.

It is the second time this month that the university or its staff have been targeted.

Two teachers, an American and an Australian, remain missing after being abducted at gunpoint from a road nearby on August 7. — Agencies