Two employees dead, three police officers are injured in ISIS attack on Iraqi Embassy in Kabul

Two employees at the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul were killed and three police officers were injured in a suicide bombing followed by a four-hour gunfight at the embassy on Monday.

The attack in the center of the Afghan capital began around 11 a.m., when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the entrance of the Iraqi Embassy. After the explosion, three gunmen entered the compound and a gun battle began with the Afghan security forces who had rushed to the scene.

The Afghan forces eventually killed all three attackers.

Armored vehicles and a large contingent of police officers and soldiers were seen being deployed around the embassy during the attack.

The Iraqi Embassy is located in a part of the city known as Shahr-e-Now, which lies outside the so-called “green zone” where most foreign embassies and diplomatic missions are located and which is heavily fortified with guards and large cement blast walls. Instead, the Iraqi Embassy is located on a small street in a neighborhood dominated by markets and businesses.

A witness named Kareem said he heard several explosions.

“After the [first] explosion, all the people, all the shop owners ran off. We all closed our offices and stopped working. I heard six or seven blasts, but I wasn’t sure whether they were grenades or bombs. The explosions were very loud,” he said.

The attack was suppressed around 3 p.m. and all the people in the embassy were evacuated, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry.

Ministry spokesman Najib Danish told reporters that two Afghan employees of the Iraq Embassy had died in the attack. Three police were injured, he said.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place two weeks after the embassy held a press conference to celebrate the defeat of Islamic State in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack and said it was the government’s responsibility to provide protection to international missions.

In Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Jamal condemned the assault as a “terrorist attack.”

Source: AP