Save the Children office attacked in Afghanistan

• One killed as gunmen storm NGO’s office in Jalalabad after explosion

JALALABAD: Gunmen stormed the office of Save the Children in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad after an explosion on Wednesday morning, killing at least one person, officials said. Hours later, with fighting at the scene still underway, the aid agency said it had suspended all of its operations in Afghanistan.

“We remain committed to resuming our operations and lifesaving work as soon as possible,” Save the Children said in a statement. The London-based charity works in 16 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, and its programmes reach more than 700,000 children, according to its website.

The Islamic State’s local affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group’s Amaq news agency. Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, which includes Jalalabad, said that the gunmen entered the charity’s office after a suicide bombing in front of the building.

“I saw a white car arrive, then armed men rushed out of the car,” said Mohammed Waseem, a witness. “After that a blast occurred, followed by gunfire. I had to run away to seek safety for myself.” Later in the day, with fighting between security forces and militants still underway, Khogyani’s office said that one person had been killed and 20 wounded, but that most of the injuries were not severe.

There are at least two schools in the area where the attack occurred. Pictures circulating on social media showed children, some accompanied by adults and others on their own, running away from the scene. “This is an outrage,” Nicholas Kay, the British ambassador to Afghanistan, said on Twitter.

“Any attack on children & humanitarians is a crime against humanity. I hope for a quick and safe end to this horrific incident in Jalalabad.” Aid organisations have been targeted repeatedly in Afghanistan in recent years, forcing some of them to cut back their operations.

The Red Cross recently closed its offices in two northern provinces and scaled back operations in a third regional hub after repeated attacks targeting its staff. In the latest episode, one of its physiotherapists was shot dead as she was assisting a polio patient.

After an attack last February, the Red Cross briefly suspended its operations nationwide, as Save the Children did on Wednesday. About eight hours after the attack, Khogyani said that four attackers were involved, though a security official put the number at three. The official said that two of the attackers had been killed inside the aid agency’s offices.

Officials said that the Jalalabad office of Save the Children, which works on health and education issues, shares a wall with another aid organisation, Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, and that the Swedish group’s staff had been evacuated. The pace of violence across Afghanistan has been relentless in recent weeks, with civilians bearing the brunt.

On Saturday, the Taliban attacked a packed hotel in Kabul, killing at least 22 people and terrorizing much of the Afghan capital for nearly 15 hours of fighting.