Kabul’s relative lull disrupted as bombers attack MoCIT

Gunmen attacked Afghanistan’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MoCIT) in the heart of Kabul on Saturday, interrupting months of relative calm in the Afghan capital and underlining the continued security threats despite efforts to open peace talks with the Taliban.
The attack, according to the Ministry of Interior (MoI), left 12 dead, including four assailants.
Nasrat Rahimi, an MoI spokesman, said late on Saturday that four civilians and three security personnel were among the killed as at least eight other civilians were wounded.
The attack began shortly before mid-day when a suicide bomb was detonated at the entrance to the multi-storey building housing the ministry in a busy commercial area of the city, followed up by gunfire that could be heard over a mile away.
“We saw a gunman trying to break open an office door and as we were running out, he was trying to shoot us and he started shouting ‘I will kill everyone here’,” said Syeda Rashid, an office administrator in the ministry who escaped with several of her colleagues. She said at least six women had been wounded.
The area around the building was sealed off by police as at least three attackers battled security forces for several hours before the attack was finally suppressed in the late afternoon, Nasrat Rahimi said.
Hundreds of workers from MoCIT, the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Central Statistics Office were evacuated from the buildings, along with several young children at a childcare center built for ministry staff.
“We were having lunch when we heard the explosion,” said Rabia, who worked at the childcare center. “We grabbed the children together into the safe room and just waited till the security forces arrived,” she said.
The blast, which security officials said appeared to have been caused by a suicide bomber, was also close to the heavily fortified Serena Hotel, one of the very few Kabul hotels still used by foreign visitors.
The operation marked a return to the kind of complex attacks in an urban center that have killed hundreds of people in Kabul and other Afghan cities over recent years.
There was no claim of responsibility, but the Taliban issued a statement denying any involvement. Many such attacks have been claimed by the radical Islamic State group.
Prior to Saturday’s attack, Kabul had been relatively calm as American officials have held a series of meetings with representatives from the Taliban to try to agree the basis for a peace settlement and an end to more than 17 years of war.
While heavy fighting has carried on across Afghanistan and Taliban militants have announced their now customary spring offensive, it had been months since the last major attack on civilian targets in the capital.
The attack, just days after a planned meeting between Taliban representatives, and Afghan politicians and civil society representatives in Qatar was canceled, underlined the hurdles facing efforts to reach a peace settlement.
Officials have said they hope to hold a meeting soon but no date has been set so far.