Afghan security forces kill last gunman in Kabul attack

 Afghan security forces have killed the last surviving gunman holding out more than 10 hours after a complex attack that began with a car bomb in central Kabul, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Tuesday.

In a message posted on Twitter, he said Afghan special forces had killed all those involved in Monday night's attack in the Share Naw area of Kabul.

Earlier in the day, Afghan security forces sealed off the centre of Kabul as they battled gunmen who barricaded themselves inside the offices of an international aid group.

The attack in a prosperous business and residential area of the capital took place just hours after a Taliban suicide attack near the Defence Ministry killed at least 24 people, including a number of senior security officials.

“We have rescued several families from the area,” Fraidoon Obaidi, chief of the Kabul police Criminal Investigation Department, said.

The attacks highlighted the precarious security climate in the capital just a month before a conference in Brussels where international donors are expected to pledge continued financial support to Afghanistan.

After several hours of quiet overnight, sporadic gunfire and explosions could be heard as day broke. Security officials evacuated terrified civilians from their offices and homes near the explosion site.

An Interior Ministry official said initial reports indicated one person had been killed and six wounded in the attack, with 31 people rescued from the area.

Kabul traffic was blocked in several parts of the city and schools in the area were closed.

On Monday, 24 people were killed and 91 wounded when twin blasts in quick succession tore through an afternoon crowd in a bustling area of the city close to the Defence Ministry.

The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for that attack, in which a suicide bomber caught security forces personnel and civilians who rushed to help victims of the first explosion.

“When the first explosion happened people crowded to the site and then the second blast occurred, which was really powerful and killed lots of people,” said Samiullah Safi, who witnessed the attack.

An Army General and two senior police commanders were among the dead, a Defence Ministry official said. Another official said the deputy head of President Ashraf Ghani's personal protection force had also been killed.

The double bombing came less than two weeks after gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13 people.

It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since at least 80 people were killed by a suicide bomber who targeted a demonstration on July 23. That assault was claimed by Islamic State.

The Taliban's ability to conduct coordinated high profile attacks in Kabul has piled pressure on the Western-backed government, which has struggled to reassure a war-weary population that it can guarantee security.

Afghanistan's foreign partners, concerned about the ability of the security forces to withstand Taliban violence, are expected to pledge support over coming years at the Brussels conference, three months after NATO members reaffirmed their commitment at a meeting in Warsaw.

Outside Kabul, the insurgents have stepped up their military campaign, threatening Lashkar Gah, capital of the strategic southern province of Helmand, as well as Kunduz, the northern city they briefly took last year.


Source:-thehindu
View more:Bulk SMS Marketing

'Lone' Munich Shooter Kills 9, Commits Suicide

A gunman went on a rampage Friday in a busy shopping area of Munich, killing nine people and wounding 21 others in an act of "suspected terrorism" before he committed suicide, police said early Saturday.

The attack prompted authorities to lock down much of the southern German city and launch a massive manhunt. After the search ended, police said that the suspected gunman was an 18-year-old with dual German and Iranian citizenship who had been living in the city.

The motive for the attack, the Munich police chief said, was "fully unclear."

The assault was the third act of carnage to shake Europe in eight days. It followed a July 14 attack by a Tunisian-born man who killed 84 people in the French Riviera city of Nice by plowing a truck into a crowd. On Monday, an Afghan teenager wielding an ax wounded five people on a train near the Bavarian city of Wurzburg. In both those cases, the assailants were inspired by the Islamic State, authorities said.


Nine people were killed and many injured after gunmen opened fire at a shopping centre in Munich in Germany
But German officials said investigators were looking into the possibility that Friday's attack was motivated by anti-immigrant sentiments, as well as the prospect that Islamist extremism was behind it.

There were no immediate details about the victims of Friday's attack on Munich's Olympia shopping complex. Munich's police chief, Hubertus Andra, said 10 people were killed in total, including the shooter, who committed suicide about half a mile away from the mall. Sixteen of the 21 wounded were still being treated early Saturday at hospitals, police said.

About 50 people of various ethnic backgrounds gathered at a Munich sports hall early Saturday to await official word on the fate of missing loved ones.

Much of the city was placed on lockdown for hours as police conducted the manhunt. Despite initial reports of multiple attack sites, police could not confirm attacks in any other locations besides the shopping area. They initially thought as many as three assailants were involved, but later said two people who had been spotted speeding away from the crime scene were not connected to the bloodshed.


Residents were going about their shopping at the busy Olympia mall, some eating at a McDonald's restaurant when the shooting began.
Officials did not immediately describe the full scope of the assault. But a senior security official told The Washington Post that four people were killed inside a McDonald's restaurant near the complex and that one was fatally shot outside. The official said another victim died at a hospital.

The initial investigation was pointing "in all directions," police spokesman Marcus da Gloria Martins told reporters in Munich.

There have been few mass shootings in recent years in Germany, which has tough gun laws, and police said they had not previously been aware of any threat posed by the gunman.

Authorities were also investigating whether the gunman may have been motivated by anger at immigrants. Language against foreigners can be heard on a recording from the scene of the shooting, but it was not immediately clear who was speaking. A German television station said a witness told a colleague that the shooter shouted "Bloody foreigners!" at the scene of the McDonald's attack. There was no immediate confirmation of that account.

Source:-NDTV
Viewmore:-Punjab Mobile Number Database