{"id":26798,"date":"2018-12-24T19:23:02","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T19:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=26798"},"modified":"2018-12-24T19:23:02","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T19:23:02","slug":"gunmen-storm-government-building-in-kabul-take-hostages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=26798","title":{"rendered":"Gunmen storm government building in Kabul, take hostages"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Gunmen stormed a government building in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on Monday, taking civilians hostage as they fought a gun battle against Afghan soldiers, officials said.<\/p>\n

The attack began in the afternoon when a suicide bomber blew up a car outside the Ministry of Public Works. Shooting followed, with hundreds of government employees trapped inside the building, said Interior Ministry official Nasrat Rahimi.<\/p>\n

“There are still some hostages with the enemy and a clearance operation is ongoing,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rahimi said two fighters had been killed but gunmen in a nearby government building were exchanging fire with security forces.\u00a0A fourth attacker died in the car bomb explosion.<\/p>\n

One had broken several bones after jumping from the third floor of a building to escape the attackers, an AFP correspondent at a hospital said. Another two were wounded by broken glass.<\/p>\n

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Flames rise from a government building after an explosion and attack by gunmen [Rahmat Gul\/AP Photo]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mushtaq Rahim, a security analyst based in Kabul, told Al Jazeera that he had passed by the area a few minutes after the attack took place.<\/p>\n

“The blast took place just before staff left their offices for the day,” he said. “There’s a lot of smoke coming out of the area. A fire had broken out in the building where the ministry is placed.”<\/p>\n

No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest violence to rock the Afghan capital.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several apartment buildings and a government public works department building are located in the same area of the eastern Kabul neighbourhood where the attack is under way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ashraf, a witness who works at the Ministry of Public Works and who goes by one name, said armed men inside the compound were exchanging gunfire with security forces.<\/p>\n

“They are also firing at the NDS facility nearby,” he told AFP, referring to the Afghan spy agency, the National Directorate of Security.<\/p>\n

Monday’s attack was the biggest in Kabul since November 28 when the Taliban<\/a>detonated a vehicle bomb outside the compound of British security firm G4S, killing at least 10 people and leaving a massive crater in the road.<\/p>\n

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A member of Afghan security force takes position at the site of an attack [Omar Sobhani\/Reuters]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gunmen stormed a government building in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on Monday, taking civilians hostage as they fought a gun battle against Afghan soldiers, officials said. The attack began in the afternoon when a suicide bomber blew up a car outside the Ministry of Public Works. Shooting followed, with hundreds of government employees trapped inside the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}