US blames brutal attack on Afghan maternity hospital on IS

Kabul, May 15

A US official, on Friday, stated the Islamic State-affiliate in Afghanistan carried out this week’s horrific assault on a maternity hospital in a majority Shiite Muslim neighbourhood in Kabul, killing 24 individuals, together with new child infants and moms.

Peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad stated the US authorities believed the Islamic State-affiliate carried out Tuesday’s assault on the hospital and an assault earlier the identical day in a special province concentrating on the funeral of a pro-government warlord, killing 34 individuals.

The IS “has demonstrated a pattern for favouring these types of heinous attacks against civilians and is a threat to the Afghan people and the world,” Khalilzad tweeted.

The IS has not claimed duty for the maternity hospital assault.

Also on Friday, Paris-based charity Doctors with out Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres), which operates the hospital, referred to as the assault “pure hell”.

It stated the gunmen moved on to the maternity wards, ignoring different medical items nearer to the doorway of the medical advanced. They had been looking for the newborns and the moms, the group stated in an announcement Friday.

“They went through the rooms in the maternity, shooting women in their beds. It was methodical. Walls sprayed with bullets, blood on the floors in the rooms, vehicles burnt out and windows shot through,” stated Frederic Bonnot, MSF’s head of packages in Afghanistan.

“They came to kill the mothers.” The IS-affiliate in Afghanistan, often called the Islamic State Khorazan Province, is headquartered within the nation’s east and has carried out a number of devastating assaults, largely concentrating on the nation’s minority Shiite Muslims.

In 2018, the IS killed dozens of younger college students taking college entrance exams in the identical Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul.

They have issued warnings to Shiites that they might kill them of their mosques, colleges and houses.

The IS took duty for the assault on the funeral in japanese Nangarhar province.

The Taliban denied involvement in both assault, calling the maternity hospital assault a “vile, inhumane and an un-Islamic act.”

In an announcement on Friday, the rebel motion slammed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for blaming the Taliban in a speech following the assaults. They accused him of making an attempt to scuttle a US-Taliban peace deal aimed toward ending practically 20 years of conflict.

Khalilzad, the architect of the deal signed on February 29, warned in a collection of tweets on early Friday that the Islamic Sate affiliate opposed peace between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s management in Kabul and “seeks to encourage sectarian war as in Iraq and Syria.”

The peace deal supplies for the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan, however was additionally touted at its signing because the nation’s greatest probability at peace in 4 many years of conflict.

But relentless political turmoil in Kabul has dogged the beginning of the second, essential section of the deal, which requires Afghans on either side of the battle to barter a framework for a post-war Afghanistan.

Both Ghani and his rival in final September’s presidential polls, Abdullah Abdullah, have declared themselves winners and have each been sworn in as President. They have been unable to provide you with a power-sharing deal whilst Washington has stated it’s going to scale back $1 billion in help in the event that they don’t finish their squabbling.

Washington’s efforts to get the Taliban to cut back their violence have additionally been unsuccessful, although their assaults have been towards army installations and haven’t focused US and NATO troops.

The withdrawal of US and NATO troops started after the deal was signed and can proceed till all troops are passed by the tip of subsequent yr — if the Taliban hold their promise to battle towards militant teams, most notably the Islamic State.

MSF had suspended its operations in Dasht-e-Barchi, the charity advised The Associated Press.

“This was a necessary but difficult decision knowing that women and children in Kabul are now deprived of a fundamental health care service they need, in a context where access to essential care is already limited,” stated Filipe Ribeiro, MSF’s nation consultant.

The group stated it’s going to assessment its operations following an investigation into the assault. AP