At least 19 people were killed and 50 injured on Tuesday in a suicide attack on Kabul National Military Hospital, amid growing violence in Afghanistan between the ruling Taliban and the rival jihadist group ISIS .

The assault, led by a suicide bomber and other assailants, ended with the death of the latter, killed by Taliban fighters, said an official in the Taliban government in the afternoon.

Mohammed Yaqoub targeted?

The attack, which targeted Sardar Mohammad Dawood Khan Hospital, the country's largest military hospital, was not immediately claimed. It is in this hospital that the Taliban Minister of Defense Mohammed Yaqoub, son of the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, made his first public appearance last Wednesday, to ask in particular Afghan businessmen to invest in hospitals. . “Nineteen bodies and around 50 wounded were taken to hospitals” in the Afghan capital, an official at the health ministry said.

"The attack was carried out by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle who blew himself up at the entrance to the hospital," said the Taliban official, who also referred to a second explosion.

Several other attackers then managed to enter the hospital, where they ended up being shot dead by Taliban fighters who had arrived there, he said shortly before 4.30 p.m. local time (12 p.m. GMT), three and a half hours after the event. explosion of the suicide bomber, heard in several areas of the city.

In the hospital, which can accommodate up to 400 patients, staff have taken refuge in a security room, according to a medical source.

Bloody series

"I can still hear gunshots in the building," added this source, who feared that the attackers would go "from room to room" to kill more people, "as was the case the first time the hospital was attacked ”.

He had already been targeted in March 2017 by attackers dressed as medical personnel.

This bloody 6-hour shooting inside the building, claimed by ISIS, left 50 people dead according to the official toll, more than double according to security sources.

In downtown Kabul, AFP journalists saw Taliban fighters rushing to the scene in at least two armored personnel carriers and vans.

Sirens were also heard in the streets and ambulances seen speeding towards the site of the explosions.

Wave of attacks

Since coming to power on August 15, the Taliban, who have made the return to security in the country their priority after 20 years of war, have faced a wave of bloody attacks carried out by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Its local branch, IS-K, rival and main opponent of the ruling Islamist movement, has targeted both the Taliban and the Afghan Shiite minority in recent weeks.

In recent days, a series of killings, presented by the local press as reprisals between Taliban and ISIS fighters, have been observed, particularly in the province of Nangarhar, located east of Kabul and known for be a stronghold of ISIS.

The last attack in the Afghan capital dates back to October 3.

At least five people were killed in an explosion near the Id Gah mosque in Kabul, in an attack claimed by ISIS.

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