Afghanistan Government Compound Attack Left More than 40 Dead

More than 40 people died Monday in a bombing and attack at a government building in Kabul, Afghan government officials say.

Ariana News Agency- A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle outside a public welfare building in the country’s capital, before gunmen entered the building and held out for hours against security forces, as NPR’s Diaa Hadid reports.

All three gunmen were killed by Afghan security forces, Reuters reports. Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majro says 40 other people were killed and 29 were wounded.

Most of the dead were government employees. No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack took place in a heavily populated area of Kabul, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan said in a statement released Tuesday.

“These attacks cause untold human suffering to Afghan families,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, who also serves as head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. “The United Nations unequivocally condemns them, as there is no justification whatsoever for such attacks.”

Afghan police evacuated more than 350 people during the hours-long standoff with the gunmen inside the government compound. Some employees managed to hide or jump out of windows. At least one policeman was killed, Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.

Khalil Rahman, who escaped the attack, told The Associated Press he could hear sounds of screaming from outside the building.

“It was chaos,” Khalil said. “Everyone was running everywhere, trying to hide. Why would they kill us? We are Muslims. We are not Russians or Americans.”