"We are stuck inside and very afraid": Militants attack American University in Afghanistan

EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE rocked the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, an official and students trapped inside classrooms told AFP, as the complex came under a militant attack.

At least one person was killed and 26 others were wounded in the assault, which comes just weeks after two university professors — an American and an Australian — were kidnapped at gunpoint near the school.

“I heard explosions and gunfire is going on close by…our class is filled with smoke and dust,” a desperate student told AFP by telephone.

“We are stuck inside and very afraid.”

Many other trapped students were tweeting desperate messages for help. Among them was Associated Press photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Massoud Hossaini.

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.

A wounded person is treated in an ambulance after the attack. Source: AP Photo/Rahmat Gul

The attack comes after two professors at the university — an American and Australian — were kidnapped in the heart of Kabul earlier this month, the latest in a series of abductions of foreigners in the conflict-torn country.

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

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

Kabul-based journalist Ahmad Mukhtar, a university student, tweeted that he managed to escape but “several of my friends and professors (are) trapped inside”.

Many of the wounded were rushed into waiting ambulances outside the university on stretchers, as erratic gunshots rang out from inside the campus.

Some of the 26 wounded were in serious condition, said health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh, who also reported one fatality.

- © AFP, 2016

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