Militants stormed the national television and radio station in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Wednesday, triggering a gunfight as journalists remained trapped inside the building, officials and eyewitnesses said.
No insurgent group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack in Nangarhar province, a hotbed of ISIL Takfiris, where the US military dropped a massive bomb last month.
“Three gunmen entered the RTA (Radio Television Afghanistan) building this morning,” government spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP.
“Two of them have been killed and one is still resisting.”
An RTA photographer said he fled the building as soon as the gunfight erupted, but some of his colleagues were still stuck inside.
ISIL insurgents are active in Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital.
Last month the US military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb in Nangarhar, killing dozens of ISIL militants.
Dubbed the “Mother Of All Bombs”, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast was unleashed in combat for the first time, hitting ISIL positions in a remote area of the province.
The unprecedented attack triggered global shock waves, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as a testing ground for the weapon.
The Pentagon has reportedly asked the White House to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan.
US troops in Afghanistan number about 8,400 today, and there are another 5,000 from NATO allies, who also mainly serve in an advisory capacity — a far cry from the US presence of more than 100,000 six years ago.
Source: AFP
