Three armed men stormed the university campus in Kabul on Monday and fought a gun battle with elite Afghan soldiers for hours. At least 22 people died. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the heinous act.

What Happened in the Attack?

A terrorist attack at Kabul University, Afghanistan’s largest, with a student body of about 22,000, killed at least 22 people and injured dozens more. The Islamic State in Afghanistan claimed credit for the attack, saying it had targeted “the graduation of judges and investigators working for the apostate Afghan government.”

It was just the latest sign that the fragile peace deal inked this year between the United States and the Taliban is far from the final word on a conflict that has gutted Afghanistan for decades.

According to official information, at least 22 people were killed in the attack, including the attackers, 22 more were injured. According to the interior ministry, the armed men stormed the area and fought a six-hour gun battle with Afghan elite units before being killed by the security forces.

NATO-Supported Mission

According to a US military spokesman, the Afghan forces were supported by the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.

The Afghan government announced a national day of mourning on Tuesday to commemorate the deadly attack victims. According to a message from the presidential palace on Monday evening, the national flag will be set to half-mast in the country and at all diplomatic missions around the world, according to a message from the presidential palace.

According to eyewitness accounts, the attack occurred during a book exhibition organized by Afghanistan and Iran.

Students Taken Hostage

The attackers had taken an unspecified number of students hostage. During the fighting, helicopters were seen, and explosions and gunfire were heard over the campus.

According to eyewitness reports, hundreds of students, professors, and administrative staff fled the premises after the fighting broke out. Hundreds of more people were later brought to safety by security forces.

Afghanistan’s Vice President Amrullah Saleh accused the Taliban of the university’s bloody attack, but the Taliban denied their involvement.

The European Union condemned the act on Monday as a “despicable act of terrorism.” It is already the second attack on an educational institution in Kabul in less than ten days.

“Such acts are not only directed against innocent civilians, especially young people. They are also attacks on the future of Afghanistan. Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders,” said a spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs officer Josep Borrell in Brussels.

UN General Secretary António Guterres also sharply condemned the fatal attack. The attack was “terrible” and also an attack on the human right to education, said Guterres in a statement. Those responsible would have to be held accountable.

Taliban Deny the Attack

The Taliban were swift to deny Monday’s attack but were accused by several Afghan government officials regardless. Since signing the peace deal with Washington, the Taliban have launched a nearly unprecedented campaign of violence against Afghan government forces and civilians. The United Nations documented 5,939 civilian casualties in the first nine months of 2020, including more than 2,000 killed, and said last week peace talks had failed to slow this toll.

The Afghan government has been talking to the militant Islamist Taliban about peace since September, but the country’s conflict continues with a high level of violence. A week ago, 24 schoolchildren died, and almost 60 were injured in a suicide attack by the Islamic State terrorist group in Kabul.

L'articolo ISIS Attack on Campus in Kabul Kills Several People proviene da InsideOver.

An abhorrent act of violence motivated by hate shocked Germany this past Wednesday. In the city of Hanau, in the state of Hesse, nine people were fatally gunned down in successive attacks on three bars. All victims are individuals with a migrant background. Six more people were injured, one of them severely. According to the Kurdish community of Germany, four of the fatalities were of Kurdish origin, while five of the fatalities were said to be of Turkish origin.

Details of the Hanau Attack

The first shots were fired at around 10 p.m. on Wednesday. First, the perpetrator shot a shisha bar on the outskirts of downtown Hanau, then a café bar a few yards away. Afterwards, he drove to another bar and opened the fire again.

The suspect is a 43-year-old man from Hanau with German citizenship, as Hesse’s Interior Minister Peter Beuth confirmed on Wednesday. In addition, the perpetrator possessed several weapons legally as he was a sports shooter without any prior police record.

Hours after the crime, police discovered the body of the alleged killer in his apartment, who, by that time, had committed suicide. The body of the 72-year-old mother of the suspect was also found in the apartment, whether or not the gunman also killed her has yet to be confirmed. The police also searched a car on the property, possibly the perpetrator’s getaway vehicle. Weapons and ammunition are said to have been found in it, according to reports.

By now, Germany’s Attorney General has taken over the investigation in the Hanau case. The decision was made early in the morning on suspicion of a terrorist act that was confirmed later in the day.

The Suspect’s Manifesto and Beliefs

The suspect had published video messages and a manifesto online, Attorney General Peter Frank confirmed. In addition to appalling worldviews and absurd conspiracy theories, these materials contained profoundly racist and misogynist beliefs. The investigators also found a video in the apartment. The recording, which the man published a few days before the crime, contains confused theories in English including a “personal message to all Americans,” taken in a private apartment. In it, the man claims there are underground military facilities in the United States where children were being “mistreated and murdered” and where “the devil was being worshiped.” He then urges American citizens to “wake up and fight”!

The video does not contain a reference to an impending act of violence in Germany. The Federal Criminal Police Office and the Hesse State Criminal Police Office are now investigating with special commissions. While no further suspects are currently in custody, the authorities have made it their priority to establish whether or not the killer had supporters or was part of a more extensive network of white supremacists.

Merkel: The Motivation was Racism and Hate

Chancellor Angela Merkel was shocked by the events and gave a statement where she officially declared “hatred of people with a different origin, belief or appearance” as the perpetrator’s motive. Federal Interior Minister Seehofer also emphasized that the perpetrator acted out of racist motivation.

After the murder of local politician Walter Lübke and the attempted massacre in a Jewish synagogue in Halle in October 2019, the Hanau murders are the latest shocking act with a racist background within just fifteen months in Germany.

Politicians from all parties expressed their empathy and condolences to the victim’s families. Many also attended a public gathering in the evening. Calls for prevention of these cases were immediately made, especially towards oversight on the Internet, where many white supremacists communicate on well-known sites and seemingly find like-minded people. However, no concrete measures for countering this threat have been made public so far.

L'articolo Racist Murders Shock Germany proviene da InsideOver.