Afghanistan: Gunmen attack Kabul military academy
A military academy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, has come under attack leaving at least two soldiers dead, days after more than 100 people were killed in an explosion near the interior ministry building.
A presidential spokesman said on Monday that the gunmen did not manage to get inside the Marshal Fahim National Defense University - the third major attack in Kabul in the past two weeks.
The attack on Monday was claimed by the Deash of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) via the group's Amaq website.
In addition to the two dead soldiers, at least 10 soldiers were wounded, officials said, while four attackers were killed and one was arrested.
The assault is continuing at a police battalion next to the academy, officials said.
Monday's attack comes as Kabul residents are grieving over the suicide bombing on Saturday in the city centre, which killed more than 100 people and left 191 people wounded.
Kabul was already on high alert, with security beefed up particularly near the blast scene - an area close to an interior ministry building, the Jamhuriat hospital, government offices, businesses and a school.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for Saturday's assault, saying its target was government officials.
Abdullah Fahimi, lecturer at Abu Rayhan University in Kabul, told Al Jazeera that the city has seen a sharp increase of attacks by armed groups in the past two winters.
"This comes in response to the aggressive strategy followed by the Afghan government as well as the US government, which slapped sanctions on six members of Taliban and the Haqqani Network," Fahimi said.
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