Islamic State Claims Attack on Kabul TV Station

Gunmen disguised as police killed a security guard and opened fire on staff at a private television station in the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday and the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack.

After a sporadic gun battle lasting about two hours, Afghan special forces suppressed the attack on Shamshad TV, a private Pashto-language broadcaster based close to the national stadium. Police said at least two people were killed and 20 wounded, Reuters reported.

“People dressed in police clothes came in and initially threw hand grenades, which killed one of our guards and wounded another,” Abed Ehsas, Shamshad’s news director told broadcaster Tolo News TV.

Some two hours later the station, which had replaced regular programs with a still picture as the fighting went on, resumed normal service, its newsreader appearing with a bandage on a hand injured in the attack.

The attack, which underlined insecurity in Kabul, came on the day NATO announced an increase of some 3,000 troops in its Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan as part of a bid to break the stalemate with Taliban insurgents.

Last year a Taliban suicide bomber killed seven members of Afghanistan’s largest private television station, Tolo. In May, IS claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on state broadcaster RTA in the eastern city of Jalalabad.