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11 Afghan Troops Die In IS Attack On Kabul Military Academy

Cover picture: Afghan army soldiers stand outside Marshal Fahim National Defense University after the attack. (Credit: Rahmat Alizadah/PA Images)

Islamic State militants attacked Afghan soldiers guarding a military academy in the capital of Kabul on Monday, killing at least 11 troops and wounding 16 others.

The attack is the latest to come following a wave of relentless violence in Kabul this month unleashed by the Taliban and the rival Islamic State group that has killed scores and left hundreds wounded.

Monday's attack started at around 4am, witnesses said, and fighting continued long after daybreak.

According to Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry, a suicide bomber first struck the military unit responsible for providing security for the academy, followed by a gun battle with the troops.

After the gun battle ended, the security forces resumed control of the area. They also confiscated one suicide vest, an AK-47 and some ammunition, Mr Waziri said.

Earlier, he said that five soldiers were killed but later raised the death toll to 11. He insisted, however, that "the attack was against an army unit providing security for the academy and not the academy itself".

Afzal Aman, commander of the city's military garrison, confirmed the attack in the area of the Marshal Fahim military academy.

Hours later, the Islamic State group's affiliate in Afghanistan, known as Khorasan Province, posted its claim of responsibility on the website of its media arm, the Aamaq news agency, saying its fighters targeted the "military academy in Kabul".

The same academy was also attacked in October last year by a suicide bomber who killed 15 cadets.

Picture: Marshal Fahim National Defense University, located in the Qargha district of Kabul.

Both the Taliban and IS have stepped up attacks in recent months in Kabul and elsewhere across Afghanistan, including massive bombings staged by militants determined to inflict maximum casualties, instil terror in the population and undermine confidence in Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's government and the country's security forces.

The Taliban claimed an ambulance attack which killed at least 103 people on Saturday, as well as an attack a week earlier in which militants stormed a hilltop hotel in Kabul, the Intercontinental, killing 22, including 14 foreigners, and setting off a 13-hour battle with security forces.

These attacks have underscored the weaknesses of Afghan security forces and raise questions about President Donald Trump's strategy for winning America's longest war.

The Taliban have been waging an insurgency since they were driven from power by US and Afghan forces after the September 11 attacks.

In recent years, they have seized districts across the country and carried out near-daily attacks, mainly targeting Afghan security forces and the US-backed government.

The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan emerged in 2014, as the US and NATO were winding down their combat mission and around the time that IS declared its self-styled Islamic caliphate, headquartered in Syria and Iraq.